I’m not going to lie. I cringed a bit when I saw IN THIS MOMENT in my review pile. I was exposed (briefly) to their debut album, “A Beautiful Tragedy”, and found it contrived, hard-to-stomach Metalcore, that made no attempt to stand out amongst the pack. I wrote the band off as another commercialized, dime-a-dozen snoozer, that the world really had no use for, but nothing could have prepared me for this.

The band’s sophomore release, “The Dream”, makes one positive step in ridding the band of the ‘core elements. Problem is, they also got rid of the Metal while they were at it. What IN THEY MOMENT brings to the table on the “The Dream” is radio-ready Pop Rock, sprinkled with the occasional half-decent lead or solo (their absolutely last remaining ties to anything Metal), which is closer to MTV darlings PARAMORE than to, say, Metalcore mainstays UNEARTH. Sure the songs are as catchy as your average virus, and vocalist Maria Brink shows that she doesn’t have a half-bad voice, but the whole affair is so sickeningly sweet, that it borders on offensive that this album would be sent to a Metal ‘zine for review.

(Online December 1, 2008)