In This Moment Unleashes “Hell Pop” on Atlanta
The album Blood, released at the end of 2012, marked a stylistic change in In This Moment’s sound. Gone were the more traditional metalcore elements that dominated its music, and “Hell Pop” entered with dark music, heavy musicianship and more accessible “pop” vocals and production. The shift seems to have worked. Blood entered the Billboard charts at number 15, the band’s highest chart position to date. Along with the musical shift, In This Moment also re-tooled its stage show, which has grown into a full-scale theatrical production.
On the rather cramped stage of The Masquerade’s “Heaven” room, the band’s production looked huge. The setup consisted of a sculpture that appeared to be made from old mannequin parts encased in stone, behind which sat an elevated platform housing two fans, lights, smoke guns, arched gates and two poles with impaled skulls…all props I hope. Add musical equipment, two dancers, four band members, smoke and a blinding light show and you have a lot to take in, visually speaking.
Despite the large production, lead singer and founder Maria Brink is still the focal point, and she’s not hard to miss as a statuesque, platinum blonde dressed in garters, thigh-high red leather boots and marching band jacket standing between the aforementioned columns of impaled skulls, blasting the crowd with a makeshift smoke gun. Like I said, not hard to miss. Her bold stage persona, careening vocals and lyrics about self-empowerment, love and sex are the driving force of the band.
Set opener “Rise With Me / Adrenalize” was the perfect example of the band’s new approach. Dreadlocked guitarists Chris Howorth and Randy Weitzel, bassist Travis Johnson and drummer Tom Hane pounded out the song’s grinding rhythm while Brink, flanked by two dancers holding large needles, theatrically delivered the song’s provocative lyric. The driving beat of “Blazin’” from the album A Star-Crossed Wasteland sped along at 100 mph, while “Beast Within” reenforced the sexual undercurrent of Brink’s presentation.
“Into The Light” was the emotional highlight of the show as Brink, seated alone on stage, looked lost in song while accenting the powerful lyric with slow, beautiful hand gestures, not unlike what you would see from a figure skater. The crowd stayed completely silent as her vocals trailed off to a whisper toward the end, before erupting in mass applause at the song’s end.
After that it was back to the “rock” as In This Moment tore through “The Gun Show,” “Daddy’s Fallen Angel” and a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” before ending the set with Maria Brinks’ self-empowerment anthem “Whore.”
An encore of “11:11” and “Blood,” both from the album Blood brought the production to full blast, with all participants taking the stage to a vocal audience of raised “metal horns” and applause.
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