Gothtober- In This Moment : "GODMODE"

In This Moment has shifted through a few stylistic personas throughout their career. My favorite was the hyper-sexualized industrial grooves they dug into for their latex-clad "Blood" album. At 45 Maria Brink seems to be aware that dishing out the kind of aggressively erotic purring of the past, might have a more limited shelf life.  That is not to say she is ready to settle down onto the stages of  Vegas. She leans into the nu-metal resurgence. There is a Ghostemane-like rapped verse on "The Purge". She has learned to really become comfortable with her voice allowing her to nail their cover of Bjork's "Army of Me". 

"Sacrifice" slightly calls back to their previous work, while using a techno undercurrent to the verses. The big festival-ready hook works well. "Skyburner" almost feels like a Deftones song in the chorus. They are taking a bigger step into nu-metal here. She goes back into the vocal fry croak for "Sanctify Me" which builds into her actually screaming in pretty short order. It has another Deftones-like pulse. Though they are typically heading in a darker direction. Spencer from Ice Nine Kills is ready for his Adidas jumpsuit as he joins Maria in the pseudo rap of "Damaged". I mean if we are going to do nu-metal this is the way to do it as it is really dialed in. 

The vocals were given lots of love in the studio. Not that she is hiding behind any smoke and mirrors,     Maria's voice sounds better than ever. Earlier today I reviewed the new Poppy, so it's interesting to hear how Maria does what Poppy at times aspires to do but significantly better. There is however less pop, and a harder direction to this album. At times a slightly industrial feel, but never goes full-on KMFDM like they did on "Blood". The album closes more of an atmospheric power ballad, that builds enough for Maria to take a bow and scream. I will give this a 9.5, as despite wearing it's influences on their sleeves this is a pristine album.