In This Moment

In This Moment is an American alternative metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed by singer Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth in 2005. They found drummer Jeff Fabb and started the band as Dying Star. Unhappy with their musical direction, they changed their name to In This Moment and gained two band members, guitarist Blake Bunzel and bassist Josh Newell. In late 2005, bassist Newell left the band and was replaced by Pascual Romero, who in turn was quickly replaced by Jesse Landry.

Their debut album, Beautiful Tragedy, was released in 2007. Their follow up, titled The Dream was released the following year debuting at number 73 on the Billboard 200. The band's third album, A Star-Crossed Wasteland was released in 2010, and their fourth album titled Blood was released in August 2012 and debuted at number 15. Their fifth album titled Black Widow was released in November 2014 and debuted at number 8, their highest position in the charts to date. Ritual, their sixth, was released in the summer of 2017.

The band's line up has changed several times. Landry was replaced by Kyle Konkiel in 2009 and Konkiel was replaced by Travis Johnson in 2010. Jeff Fabb and Blake Bunzel left the band in 2011, and were replaced by Tom Hane and Randy Weitzel respectively. In March 2016, drummer Tom Hane announced his departure from the band and was replaced by Kent Diimmel, formerly of 3 By Design.

Throughout their career, the band has performed on several notable tours and festivals including Ozzfest in 2007 and 2008, Warped Tour in 2009, Download Festival in 2009 and 2013, Mayhem Festival in 2010, Music as a Weapon V tour in 2011, the Uproar Festival in 2012, Rock on the Range in 2012, 2013, and 2015, the Carnival of Madness tour in 2013, Knotfest in 2014, Rockfest in 2015 and Rocklahoma in 2015.

History

Formation and Beautiful Tragedy (2005–2008)

In August 2005, singer Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth met through some common friends. After becoming acquainted, and finding that there was much in common between them, they began writing songs together. Soon thereafter they enlisted the help of Los Angeles drummer Jeff Fabb and formed the band Dying Star.^[3] Unhappy with where the band was headed, they decided to take on a new musical direction. By mid-2005, the lineup included Brink, Howorth, Fabb, guitarist Blake Bunzel, and bassist Josh Newell. The band recorded demos and posted them on MySpace. During the winter of 2005, Newell departed from the band to focus on his other project, Ketaset, as well as his audio engineering work. Producer Pascual Romero was then the bassist for a time before friend of the band Jesse Landry was eventually tapped to round out the band permanently. Rob "Blasko" Nicholson, the bassist for Ozzy Osbourne became the band's manager after discovering them through MySpace.^[4]

By the end of the 2005, In This Moment had generated a fanbase through internet marketing and do-it-yourself touring.^[5] This sparked an interest from Century Media Records, and a worldwide record deal followed. The band released their debut album Beautiful Tragedy on March 20, 2007, backed by the singles "Prayers", and title track "Beautiful Tragedy". The album was produced by Eric Rachel and combined sounds of metalcore and hard rock while the lyrics drew from Brink’s personal experiences about abandonment and tragedies. The vocals on the songs alternate between Brink singing and screaming. The band performed on several tours including The Hottest Chicks in Metal Tour 2007 with Lacuna Coil, Ozzfest in the summers of 2007 and 2008, Megadeth, and the Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osbourne tour. They recorded a cover of Lacuna Coil's "Heaven's a Lie" with the band Manntis as part of "Century Media Records's Covering 20 Years of Extreme cover album.

The Dream (2008–2009) and A Star-Crossed Wasteland (2010–2011)

Vocalist Maria Brink performing live in 2009

In This Moment released their second album entitled The Dream on September 30, 2008. The album received mostly positive reviews and marked the band's debut on the Billboard 200, debuting at number 73. The album was produced by Kevin Churko and featured a less heavy approach, with a bigger focus on clean vocals from Brink.^[6][7][8] The album has produced many live favorites such as "Forever", "You Always Believed", and "Into the Light", the latter of which is still performed at most of their shows. The song "Forever" was released as the album's lead single. To support the release, the band went on tour with Five Finger Death Punch, Mudvayne, Papa Roach, and Filter. They also appeared on the Give It a Name tour in the UK and were on the 2009 Warped Tour line-up, playing on the Ernie Ball Stage. They also played at Download Festival 2009 on the second stage.^[9] A cover of Blondie's "Call Me" was released as the second single from The Dream. The cover appears on the special edition, titled The Dream: Ultraviolet Edition to coincide with Warped Tour, which included unreleased tracks and acoustic performances.^[10]

The band embarked on their first headlining tour titled A Winter to Remember Tour, bringing along In Fear and Faith, Agraceful, and Motionless in White as support.

In the fall of 2009, Maria Brink and Chris Howorth announced that the band has begun writing for the next album, citing it to be darker and heavier. Brink revealed the album title A Star-Crossed Wasteland on her official site in February 2010. After being named the Hottest Chick in Metal at the Revolver Golden God awards in April 2010, Maria Brink stated in an interview that A Star-Crossed Wasteland will be released on July 13, 2010. The album's first single, "The Gun Show" was released to iTunes on June 1, 2010. The album sold 10,500 copies, debuting at number 40.^[11]

In the summer of 2010, the band played Mayhem Festival 2010 alongside Korn, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Hatebreed, Shadows Fall and other bands.^[12] On September 24, 2010 In This Moment officially released a video for the single, "The Promise", shot and directed by David Brodsky. On November 21, 2010, it was announced that In This Moment would play alongside Sevendust, Disturbed and Korn in the Music as a Weapon V tour. Some shows were canceled at the end of the first leg of the tour due to illness of Disturbed singer David Draiman. The second leg of the tour continued as scheduled.

Soon after Music as a Weapon, the band went on another headling tour titled the Hell Hath No Fury Tour, along with Straight Line Stitch, System Divide, and Sister Sin. The band was also part of the All Stars Tour along with acts such as Emmure, Alesana, Iwrestledabearonce, Blessthefall, For Today, Born Of Osiris, Motionless In White, Sleeping with Sirens, among others.

Blood (2011–2014) and Black Widow (2014–2016)

In May 2011, In This Moment posted on Facebook that they were working on new material for a new album hoping for a 2012 release. This release was recorded without founding members Jeff Fabb and Blake Bunzel, who were both working with James Durbin as of September, 2011.^[13] In November 2011, In This Moment took part in the ShipRocked music cruise alongside Candlebox, Hinder, Filter, Sevendust, Buckcherry, and many more.^[14] Blood was the first album following the band parting ways with longtime manager, Blasko. Blood was revealed to be the album's title on April 6, 2012. On May 14, 2012, it was announced that the album would be released on August 14, 2012.^[15] Blood was released as the album's first single on June 12, 2012 and the album artwork and track listing followed on June 18, 2012.^[16] Both the single and album were certified Gold, with sales of 500,000 copies by the Recording Industry Association of America on the Spring of 2017.^[17]

To support Blood, the band went on a short headlining trek previewing new cuts from the album. Later in 2012, they went on to support Shinedown and Papa Roach on their U.S. headlining summer tour. The band has also appeared on the 2012 Uproar Festival, the 2012 ShipRocked music cruise, and the 2013 Carnival of Madness tour.

On April 16, 2013, In This Moment announced on Facebook that they would be filming their first concert DVD at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, WI. The show was filmed on May 21 and features a special stage setup, costume changes, props, and dancers. This show also marked the first appearance of the Blood girls on stage. The set list composed heavily on Blood. Blood at the Orpheum was released on January 21, 2014 and features interviews with Maria along with behind the scenes rehearsal footage. The film was directed by Brad Golowin and the live audio was mixed and mastered by producer Kevin Churko.

In the fall of 2013, the band headlined The Hellpop Tour with Motionless In White, West Hollywood heavy metal ensemble All Hail the Yeti, and Kyng. A second leg resumed in early 2014 with Butcher Babies, Devour the Day, All Hail the Yeti and Los Angeles melodic metal quartet Before the Mourning.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

In This Moment announced on February 5, 2014 that they had left Century Media and have signed with Atlantic Records, which will release their fifth album and first with a major label. They also revealed that they were set to enter the studio on February 23 to begin recording their fifth studio album and follow up to Blood. Chris Howorth said, "We have a bunch of ideas and the way we did Blood was different than we'd done any album before. We brought ideas and pieces and parts into the studio and wrote each song in the studio, one at a time. All the other albums we had the songs formatted and together already. So we're going to do the same thing again. We're gonna try to replicate the magic of Blood and try to take the style and sound we had for Blood and just do it bigger and better while still keeping true to that same vibe. That's our sound. We feel like we found something and want to stick the flag in the ground on top of that hill."^[1]

The first single, "Sick Like Me" from the band's album, Black Widow was released to digital retailers on September 9, 2014 while the album, produced by Kevin Churko, was released on November 17, 2014.

To support the release, the band performed at Knotfest on October 25, 2014 before headlining the Black Widow Tour, which kicked off on October 26, 2014 and concluded on December 14, 2014 with Starset, Twelve Foot Ninja, and 3 Pill Morning as the opening acts.^[23] The Black Widow shows presented a more elaborate stage show featuring a new set, props, and choreography. Throughout 2015, the headline tour resumed in Europe and the U.S, followed by supporting slots for Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch and Godsmack.^[24] In June 18, 2016, the band kicked off The Hellpop 2016 Tour with openers Hellyeah, Sunflower Dead, and Shaman's Harvest before joining Rob Zombie and Korn for their summer tour.^[25] On March 16, 2016, Drummer Tom Hane announced his departure from the band, citing creative and artistic unhappiness.^[26] The band replaced Hane with Kent Diimmel, the drummer from 3 By Design.^[27]

The band made their network television debut on a season 2 episode of TNT's Murder in the First, which premiered on June 8, 2015.^[28] The storyline involved a school bus shooting with the band being seen performing "Sick Like Me" in an underground warehouse.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the formation of the band, Century Media released a compilation album titled Rise of the Blood Legion: Greatest Hits (Chapter 1) on May 4, 2015. The album culls tracks from the band's four releases with the longtime label.

Ritual (2017-present)

On February 6, 2017, the band announced their North American headlining tour titled Half God, Half Devil. The 19 date tour kicked off on April 7, 2017 with supporting acts Gemini Syndrome, Avatar, and Motionless in White.^[29] The tour resumed for a summer trek on June 19, 2017 supported by Motionless in White, Vimic, Starset, and Little Miss Nasty^[30]and a fall run will start on September 22, 2017 with Of Mice and Men and Avatar.^[31] The set list was compiled from Blood and Black Widow while also debuting three songs from the band's upcoming sixth album, Ritual,^[32] including the first single "Oh Lord", and a cover of Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight". Ritual was released on July 21, 2017 and said to have a more serious tone.^[33] Guitarist Chris Howorth has described the sound on the upcoming album as "stripped down" and "raw".^[34] Lead vocalist, Maria Brink says the record is less sexualized than the previous efforts saying, "I wanted to show people and definitely women a different side of strength in me that was a really powerful force in me that didn't need the sexual part, so there's definitely a more serious overtone...a more serious deeper side of us."^[35]

The album debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200, selling an estimated 22,000 copies.^[36]

Musical style and influences

In This Moment has been described by AllMusic as a goth rock group with metalcore roots.^[37] The band's debut album Beautiful Tragedy is metalcore.^[38][39][40] The band's second album The Dream shows the band becoming less intense and moving to a more alternative metal and alternative rock sound.^[40] In This Moment started to use elements of genres such as industrial and electronic on later albums such as Blood^[41] and Black Widow.^[42] The band's album Black Widow has been described as gothic metal.^[43] In This Moment has been described as alternative metal.^[44][45][46] In This Moment cite Pantera, Whitesnake, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, Deftones, Dead Can Dance, and M83 (band) as their influences.^[47]

Band members

Timeline

Discography

• Beautiful Tragedy (2007)
• The Dream (2008)
• A Star-Crossed Wasteland (2010)
• Blood (2012)
• Black Widow (2014)
• Ritual (2017)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to In This Moment (band).

• Official website