In This Moment are back with album number six – Ritual. As a fan of the band, I was excited to be able to listen to it early.
The haunting instrumental of Salvation creates an atmospheric opening to the record. Oh Lord is repetitive with “oh lord” being used in almost every line and the track is more drum-focused throughout the verses. When the vocals go from more distorted/that electronic tinge you get over dance tracks to just Maria singing and the guitars kick in, it makes for a better track, although this doesn’t last too long as the distortion comes back in. Rob Halford (Judas Priest) arrives for a Black Wedding. The track is catchy and is the one that really kicks the record off. Although it does take from Billy Idol’s White Wedding with “it’s a nice night for a black wedding.” It’s heavy and I feel like I can overlook the rip-off of Billy Idol.
After the Black Wedding/White Wedding stuff, I was half expecting In The Air Tonight to be a metal version of the Phil Collins classic. And I wasn’t wrong, well I was half wrong, the beginning is a very stripped back version with the focus on Maria’s unique vocals. Everyone knows the original song for THAT drum solo which the younger generation will remember from the Cadbury’s advert with the gorilla, but you need to check this cover out for Tom Hane’s take on it, it’s more mellow than I would have expected and very brief but it works really well. Joan Of Arc is a more classic In This Moment track, it has that dance feel that we’ve come to love, it’s catchy and has those signature metal riffs.
Twin Flames has some acoustic guitars and is more of a ballad and shows off Maria’s vocals well. Roots is catchy and angsty while closing track Lay Your Gun Down is stripped back and emotional.
Altogether the album is pretty decent, there are parts where I feel that things could have been improved, most notably with Oh Lord with the way the vocals are but the overall record is another top one from In This Moment.
8.5/10