In This Moment
Black Widow
(Atlantic Records)

In This Moment’s follow-up to Blood throws itself heavily into industrial sounds, beats and tortured lyrics of psychological self-inflection and multiple mental addictions. Maria Brink’s breathy, sexual-laced delivery is over everything when she’s not wailing or screaming and there’s a certain wink in her Reznor-esque lyrics of inner pain and deviance that says, “yeah, I know.”

Delivering a quivering balance of heavy pop, industrial, techno and metal taking generous scoops from the multi-flavored genre parlor, Black Widow keeps a dominatrix attitude while exposing, ripped-open inner pain and vulnerability. Intro song “The Infection” starts with an eerie, arm-length creepy crawl – cue the booming heartbeat and screaming sirens, you’ve been bit. Homicidal queen “Sex Metal Barbie” indeed, this song is a menagerie of bells and chimes on techno strings that make her move and dance that way. Industrial beats tag team with heavy guitars in a self-mocking nod, receipt to the haters and detractors of her media portrayal. The dark electronic ambiance of “Big Bad Wolf” starts with descending guitar drags and moans with techno metal and a catchy dance beat. The southern bell in black dressed to kill comes out “Dirty Pretty,” malicious intent ready with background black lipstick Marilyn Manson-esque vocals. Shinedown’s Brent Smith lends vocals on the soothing, tranquil, Evanescence flow of “Sexual Hallucination.” “Sick Like Me,” arguably the album’s “Adrenalize,” blares sirens and guitars sliding dirty energy as sexed-up, psychological appetites whet for personal fetish control. With broken baby doll vocals and jaded blood-dripping teeth, the material girl temptress sings her seduction on “Bloody Creature Poster Girl” with a paper-thin invitation to sin, more than a quick tease. She’s possibly the female counterpart of Rob Zombie. “The Fighter” wails a lifetime of tortured tales on the piano as the horror movie fairytale of spending eternity in the grave with your “Bones” sets up “Natural Born Sinner”’s synthesizer’s to slither like the invitation of original sin.