Produced by Eric Rachel and In This Moment
Released: 2007
With their moneyspinners Shadows Fall now off with a major label, Century Media has cast its net wide to find a replacement. In Hollywood's In This Moment they may well have found it. If there's one band that could be described as Shadows Fall with a chick singer, it is In This Moment.
Beautiful Tragedy begins with the ridiculously generic 'Prayers', a song that sounds so much like so many others I couldn't actually pin down one to compare it to. The next track, with its Coldplay-esque intro, doesn't exactly take too many chances either, and pretty much the same could be said for the album as a whole. There isn't that much to mark this album as any different to any other quality melodic metalcore/screamo disc that's appeared in the last couple of years. The soloing is neat and unadorned, the melodies are sharp and infectious and the riffs have a mosh-inspiring catchiness without being anything remotely original. There's even a big orchestral power ballad that would slot into rock radio formatting right next to Evanescence without too much difficulty. It does however feature a couple of punchy tracks like "Next Life" and the 'bonus' "Have No Fear", and "Circles" is also a stand out.
Beautiful Tragedy is a decent album and I found it reasonably enjoyable. But it's also completely safe one, exactly the sort of album a label would want a new band with some promise to release. The real wildcard in the group is Maria Brink, who has styled herself as something of a cross between Brodie Dalle and Amy Lee with something of a young Courtney Love hanging around too. Brink is the element that really makes this band, and it's not that much of a stretch to see her eventually transcending In This Moment for something much bigger.
- Whispers of October
- Prayers
- Beautiful Tragedy
- Ashes
- Daddy's Falling Angel
- The Legacy of Odio
- This Moment
- Next Life
- He Said Eternity
- Circles
- When the Storm Subsides
- Have No Fear
Rating: 68%
