An odd album, this, “drawing on spiritual and philosophical ideas, they have created a concept that transcends cultural and metal boundaries” said one review, by which we think they mean (“we just regurgitated a press release”) “threw in some covers of huge songs to make an album to sell a few more copies”.
We’ve never heard of In This Moment before. They are American and aiming for the vast market in rock that is loud and busy while saying nothing new. They play well and it’s all well produced, although as “manufactured” a product as Take That or Spice Girls.
It opens portentously with tom toms, a brief air raid siren and a gradual build-up before thundering into a cover of… Steve Miller’s Fly Like An Eagle. Unexpected, certainly, and if you wanted a riff-heavy version of Miller’s mellow, synth-laden classic, this is it.
After a couple of the band’s own songs, commercial metal by numbers, comes a cover of Queen’s We Will Rock You, not something you ever thought you’d need, particularly one that’s a fairly faithful rendition, especially the guitar. The vocals just have more grunt, in a “we will rawk you” way.
In several places this reminded us of the soundtrack from a teen-friendly movie about King Arthur, watery women with swords in their hands emerging out of the mist or from lakes, while bad knights in black armour gallop across moors. Mostly it’s not quite as good as Evanescence’s Fallen.
Fans of In This Moment – and this is their seventh album and its out on Roadrunner, so fans there must be – will doubtless enjoy it, the rest of you should dig out / buy / stream Fallen.
