The Dream Review

Released: Sep 30, 2008
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Century Media
Number Of Tracks: 11
The Dream, unlike their last album, features more use of clean vocals and harmonization rather than Maria Brink's high-pitched screams.

Sound:	7
Lyrics:	8
Impression:	8
Overall rating:	7.7
Users rating:	9.3
Comments:	5

overall: 7.7

Reviewed by: Nikki Christ, on october 16, 2008

Sound: In This Moment's sophmore album, "The Dream", may leave the old ITM fans suprised with what they hear. Unlike their debut, "Beautiful Tragedy", there is a lot less screaming on the new album, and most of the songs have a more melodic approach. With that being said, the band still has kept it's edge, and there is actually more impressive guitar work on the new album. Songs like "Forever" and "Mechanical Love" contain some catchy solos and interesting chord progressions. One song, "Into the Light" was almost entirely piano based, and even though it was unlike In This Moment, it was breath-taking to listen to. "The Dream", the title track of the album, was really the only terrible song on the album. It was way too drawn out and boring. Overall, the sound is a lot more poppy than ITM's first album. I was pretty dissapointed by this at first, but there was still plenty of musical integrity left in the sound of the album. // 7

Lyrics and Singing: As I mentioned, Maria's screaming was hardly evident on the album. Songs like "The Great Divide" did stick closely to what you may have heard in Beautiful Tragedy with Maria Brink's feirceful screaming vocals, but most of the songs like the single "Forever" and "All for you" have vertually no screaming and have very catchy choruses. I for one missed Maria's screaming, but she also has a very imressive singing voice, and this album shows it. "Violet Skies" is the one song in my opinion that really emphasizes her range. Lyrically, the album makes me think of a concept album. All the lyrics seem to be tied together, mainly with themes of preseverance and hope. // 8

Impression: Since In This Moment is one of my favorite bands, it was hard for me not to like this album. However, if you are an ITM fan because of their hardcore sound, you may be dissapointed. If you're an ITM fan regardless or you're into more melodic metal, then this is a good buy. "All for you", "Her Kiss" and "Violet Skies" were among my favorites, as they all had a very catchy appeal but stuck true to the definitive ITM sound. I did like Beautiful Tragedy better, but overall a good effort // 8

Comments

[Phe4rTheGod]

Shouldn't this be labeled as pop???

[savageraptor]

I agree...im going to end up forcing myself to like this album due to the fact that i liked beautiful Tragedy so much. the only thing is though, i liked it because it was hardcore...although i can say now that there might have been too much screaming, in this album, there's simply not enough! i thought i could listen to the whole thing in one shot and like everything like i did with beautiful tragedy. but i found myself listening to forever over and over again because it was the only one so far that held my attention long enough to last the duration of the song; the solo is very good. However I support ITM because i remember when they first started out and they had the myspace page etc they weren't that popular now they've got 2 cds! Also the fact that it is only their second CD allows for some wiggle room as well. i think if it goes as i predict, their next CD will be MUCH better than these last two

[axeslinger0u812]

yeah, agreed. their next cd will hopefully be a good mixture of the first and second cd's. I actually really like the dream. it definitely grew on me.

[feisty cadaver]

I like The Dream because Maria is not screaming in every song, she has a beautiful voice and The Dream proves she can do a lot more with it than scream. While that might upset some metal heads, it shows that the band is starting to explore new ideas, which I don't see as a bad thing.

I saw In This Moment live last night as one of the warmup bands for Five Finger Death Punch. I was dissapointed that in a ten song set, they chose to only play two songs from The Dream. And as in their previous live performance I saw as a warmup to Megadeth, they put on quite a show.

[bakshandloomis]

When I first heard this I didn't really like it. I found that I enjoy it if I tell myself it's just a different band, because they changed so much since BT. I miss her screams, but she does have an excellent voice.