Atlantic City Weekly

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Most heavy-metal fans are meticulously familiar with Korn, Disturbed and Sevendust — three of the four bands that will perform at this Sunday night’s metal-mania event at House of Blues — but the fourth group that’s part of the “Monster Energy Music as a Weapon” tour is one that’s still in the process of expanding its horizons beyond its southern California home base.

It likely won’t be long before the quintet called In This Moment is the main headliner among metal heads, as its latest of three CD releases, a 10-song compilation called A Star Crossed Wasteland, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent charts and in the top-10 of both the U.S. Hard Rock and Alternative charts. It's also been dubbed “a modern metal masterpiece” by the Alternative Press.

Founded in 2005, the band is fronted by lead vocalist and Albany, New York-born Maria Brink, and includes Chris Howorth on lead guitar, Travis Johnson on bass, Blake Bunzel on rhythm guitar and Jeff Fabb on drums.

The Monster Energy tour began Jan. 14 and visits a new city nearly every night, stopping at Showboat’s House of Blues this Sunday, Jan. 30 (7pm). Brink spoke with Atlantic City Weekly by phone on a rare break in the action following a Glens Falls, New York gig.

How’s the tour going in general, and how much of what you’re performing is from your new album?
We couldn’t ask to be on a better tour for the winter. Being part of a tour with groups like Korn, Disturbed and Sevendust is extremely exciting and a great source of pride for us. We’re grateful every day and going up there, giving it 100 percent and having a good time. It’s going phenomenal.
Most of what we’re performing is from the new album. We’ve been switching [the set lists] up because we’ve been trying to find the one perfect lineup list for a short amount of time. We’re only performing for 25 minutes each night, but we’re playing mostly new stuff.

How is the tour structured? Do you alternate opening each show with the other three groups?
In big festivals that’s how it's done, but we’re the openers for every show, and we’re fine with that at this stage of our careers. I mean, [the other three] are the big leagues. We’ve been really fortunate to have been a part of great tours, and have done the really big crowds before, and any time you get the chance to play with bands that you’ve never played — we’ve never played with Disturbed before this — and in front of new scenes and new people that may not be familiar with your music, it’s still just as exciting. You’re generating new fans and getting your name out there with each show. I mean, out of maybe six thousand people, four thousand may not know who we are, so we’re looking at it as that’s four thousand new people to spread the word.

I know it’s received excellent reviews since [A Star Crossed Wasteland] was released, but how have the crowds on this tour and your existing fan base been reacting to your new music?
All the feedback and all the reviews we’ve seen have been very positive. We know that we’re still growing as artists, and still growing and becoming better songwriters in general. We’re not afraid to experiment or to be ourselves and kind of make our own path. We’re trying to create our own sound and our own identity, and I think people can feel that.
Our producer [Kevin Churko] did a wonderful job producing it. He did our last album for us too and he’s perfect for us — a very talented person and gifted artist. He also serves as a sort of medium person between us — making sure there’s no drama or in-fighting between us when we’re in the studio. We respect his decision making so much that we put a lot of the creative aspects, and things that we might otherwise disagree on, into his hands.

Who writes most of your songs?
There’s a lot of contribution from everybody as far as the songs that we write. Our drummer just wrote a bunch of songs. I mean, you never know which ones are going to end up being used on records — they might all get used — you just never know, but there’s creative contributions from everyone. Our two guitar players sometimes write together, and sometimes by themselves, and a lot of times I’ve even written piano songs by myself that wind up on there. It’s really a collaboration of all of us coming together and allowing everyone to bring something to the table. We’ve been very accepting and open with input from one another, and if something needs tweaking here or there, that’s cool.

Is that high-energy, heavy-metal rock sound basically what all of you grew up listening to and wanting to play?
My mom [Rita Brink] was a real rock ‘n’ roller. She was sort of hippie girl who didn’t listen to Phish, she listened to AC/DC, Janis, the Rolling Stones, Queen — I developed my hard-edge rock’n’ roll and my metal side from my mom. I was going to concerts since I was about five years old, when my mom was still rockin’ out with all her friends. So I think my mom sort of put that in my system, and in general I love melodic stuff — that’s why there’s a lot of pretty stuff in our material as well — but I’m also drawn to the aggressive side of things. And we, as a band, are very much alike in that way. For instance, my guitar player loves [heavy metal band] Pantera but his favorite band is [psychedelic/progressive rockers] Pink Floyd. So we’re all pretty extreme with our influences.
It’s been a long road — six years —  but we’re really grateful for where we are right now. In the big picture we strive for more and want to continue to grow as a band. Our ultimate goal is to be where Korn and Disturbed are now — where people in big arenas come to see us and only us. I think that’s all strive for, and that’s what keeps us all happy.