REVIEW: In This Moment - Witch
- Lysandre Pons
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Nearly two decades into a career built on transforming a spectacle out of darkness and pain into power, IN THIS MOMENT has little left to prove but plenty left to say. With this ninth studio album entitled Witch, out on August 28th and first release through Better Noise Music, the band goes from confession to reframing the shame. Since the early days of Beautiful Tragedy, we’ve seen them evolve from the melodic metalcore of the MySpace era into something far more theatrical, industrial and unmistakably their own. This new opus embraces that identity and takes it a step further. It builds on the figure of the witch, persecuted, feared, powerful and ultimately unbowed, and turns it into the perfect metaphor for everything IN THIS MOMENT has become.
These intentions are set straight off the bat with Shame. Ethereal harmonies hover as the atmosphere thickens and Maria Brink's repeated declarations: “you should be ashamed” and “shame on you”, feel like a sentence being handed back to its rightful owner. The track grows into something heavy, dissonant and almost physically uncomfortable. Its marching rhythm resembles a protest gathering momentum, empowering and unafraid. Witch begins by refusing to carry somebody else's guilt.
This reclaiming of power continues into I Want To Believe, featuring DAYSEEKER's Rory Rodriguez. The pairing of Rodriguez's affected, vulnerable clean vocals with Brink's theatrical menace makes the song a force to be reckoned with. They shock by contrast, hope and threat, yearning and resistance. The mix entangles them further, building hope and making the two singers build each other up, creating an answer to the anger and a held out hand for the hope. It serves as a reminder that survival is rarely a solitary act.
Then comes Crawl, and the album sinks its teeth in. Built around an industrial leaning stomp, a huge low end and a hypnotic electronic darkness, the song shows the band operating at full strength. Brink moves from threat to a full on attack scream while the march keeps pushing forward. The result is both confrontational and empowering, throwing back the weight that’s been carried for too long. It stands tall facing those who dominate and abuse, turning the mirror back around and making them face the consequences of their actions. The built up created by those songs being back to back makes it clear that the album doesn’t aim to ease anyone in, it intends to grab them by the collar.
Into The Dark switches to a softer, more electronic ballad. It recalls the atmospheric cover the band made of In the Air Tonight. After the confrontational opening stretch, this feels like a piece of evidence of the pain endured to get here. It is openly uneasy, like walking through mud, trying to free yourself from everything that has been expected of you while simultaneously trying to work out what it is you actually want. What could be a breathing space amongst the heaviness and punch is more of a bubble where the oxygen slowly runs low.
It, however, makes Sleeping With The Enemy’s confrontation and explosion even more necessary. The track balances heart-bruised vulnerability with throat-shredding aggression, moving between sultry restraint and raw fury. Industrial textures sit alongside classic metal structures while the enormous hooks give the song an unmistakable live potential. Betrayal isn't some distant threat here, it is sitting in the same room. That proximity creates tension, building the cold realisation that sometimes the enemy isn’t outside at all.
Wrapped Around Your Finger puts that psychological tension up against a fogged up mirror. It confuses and shows the tangled web that control is. It questions who controls who and how obsession, possession and desire interplay. The production makes that uncertainty tangible by being ominous, seeming to circle around the listener. We feel tangled in it, as if someone or something is stalking us, but we can't quite determine whether we're the prey or the predator.
A wild card is then thrown onto the table with Heretic, featuring KIM DRACULA, in a way that is gloriously unhinged. If the previous songs are carefully constructed battles between darkness and empowerment, this one simply sets the battlefield on fire. It is a collision of influences, of industrial metal, scraped synths, vicious whispers and explosive screams. It is chaotic, unpredictable and perfectly excessive, exactly what you would expect from a collaboration between people who are not interested in apologising for who they are.
Father ties in with the band’s roots, echoing the band’s song Mother. It brings back a conversation we never thought we would finish and reminds us that before anything else, Witch is the result of previous experiences. Without Me There's No You dances around the flame, between devotion and threat. Electronic undertones create suspense and forceful drums create a strange sense of ritual. Despite this instrumentation, Brink's vocals feel exposed, almost a cappella in their hypnotic delivery. It is cinematic without becoming overly grandiose.
Even though the band is well known for its covers, they come in as a surprise to close this opus. The first being no other than Another Brick In The Wall from PINK FLOYD. While a daring choice to include such a popular song, its themes of control, conformity and rebellion make it a good fit for the album. It is delivered packed in the band’s industrial and dystopian flair, feeling mechanical and deliberately cold. It, however, takes a bit away from the personal and intimate feel we’ve had so far. The second cover, NINE INCH NAILS’ Something I Can Never Have brings back that intimacy and gives us a taste of how someone else’s song can still fit in. This vulnerable and emotionally raw track feels like it could be one of the band's own compositions and becomes a befitting end.
At the end of it all, Witch is about transformation. It spans through a multitude of emotions and acts of resistance, reminding us that even if the wound is still visible, we do not need to carry the blame for it. IN THIS MOMENT does not shy away from a fight and steps up as the leader of an angry mob. They do not try to reinvent themselves, simply because they don't need to. They stand by the witch who is both victim and creator, persecuted and sovereign, wounded and dangerous. And on Witch, IN THIS MOMENT once again makes the flames look good.
Score: 9/10
Witch will be released on 28th August 2026 via Better Noise Music.
Words: Lysandre Pons
Photos: Jeremy Saffer
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