In This Moment
WITCH
Better Noise Music
Release Date: August 28, 2026
Words by Adam Tibbott
More than two decades into their career, In This Moment have never seemed particularly interested in standing still. With Witch, the band’s ninth studio album, Maria Brink and company continue evolving the sound they’ve spent years building without abandoning the darkness, theatricality and crushing heaviness that have made them unmistakably In This Moment.
Set for release August 28 through Better Noise Music, Witch once again balances massive riffs and cinematic atmospheres against Brink’s remarkable vocal range. Her ethereal melodies can sound almost fragile one moment before giving way to the guttural growls and screams that have become an equally important part of the band’s identity. That contrast has always been one of In This Moment’s greatest strengths. On Witch, it becomes part of something larger.
There’s an emotional progression running beneath these songs: shame and betrayal give way to introspection, realization and acceptance before Brink begins exposing deeper wounds. Eventually, the record finds moments of love and acceptance before ending in longing. It’s a spiritual journey that mirrors the larger idea behind Witch: transformation.
Brink has described Witch as a declaration of inner transformation, taking pain, persecution and struggle and turning those experiences into strength and power. The title isn’t simply another piece of the band’s increasingly elaborate imagery. Here, the idea of the “witch” becomes symbolic of creation, self-discovery and taking control of one’s own reality. It’s an idea that fits remarkably well with the evolution of In This Moment themselves.
Since coming to life in 2005, the band has grown far beyond the confines of the metal scene from which they emerged. Under the watch of the band’s “Mother” figure Brink, alongside co-founder and lead guitarist Chris Howorth, bassist Travis Johnson, guitarist Randy Weitzel and drummer Kent Diimmel, In This Moment have steadily emerged as one of modern heavy music’s most recognizable and influential acts.
Witch doesn’t attempt to recreate an earlier incarnation of the band. Instead, it pulls from virtually every version of In This Moment that has existed and pushes those elements forward and into the era of Witch.
Opening track “Shame” wastes little time establishing the weight of the album. Heavy guitars collide with thunderous drums beneath one of Brink’s commanding performances, turning the song into an anthem for anyone who has ever found themselves taken advantage of by the very friends or loved ones they trusted.
There’s anger here, but there’s also liberation in finally recognizing what happened and refusing to carry someone else’s shame any longer. It’s easily my favorite track on Witch, and one that practically begs to become part of In This Moment’s live show. Hopefully it does.
That aggression gives way to something considerably more introspective with “I Want To Believe,” featuring Dayseeker. Maria Brink’s softer vocals pair beautifully with Dayseeker vocalist Rory Rodriguez. His naturally emotive delivery feels remarkably at home alongside hers. Neither vocalist overpowers the other, and the pairing becomes one of the album’s strongest collaborations.
At its core, “I Want To Believe” feels like a song about introspection, questioning what you believe, what you want to believe and how much of your reality has been constructed around those beliefs. It’s one of Witch’s more vulnerable moments without needing to become one of its heaviest.
“Crawl” brings the aggression roaring back. Brink moves between rhythmic, almost percussive verses, melody and explosive screams while the instrumentation underneath her shifts between atmosphere and outright hostility. Its confrontational nature fits comfortably within the larger emotional progression of Witch: recognition eventually has to give way to reckoning.
That realization continues through “Into The Dark.” There’s a hint of regret running beneath the track, but not necessarily regret over losing someone. Instead, it feels like the realization that you invested so much of yourself into someone who ultimately wasn’t worth your time—and the frustration that comes from wondering why it took so long to see them clearly.
By the time “Sleeping With The Enemy” arrives, another recurring theme begins to emerge: acceptance after denial. If the preceding songs represent questioning, realization and confrontation, “Sleeping With The Enemy” feels like acknowledging the truth once there’s nowhere left to hide from it. Sometimes the most difficult revelation isn’t discovering who someone else really is. It’s admitting that part of you already knew.
Then In This Moment pull one of the album’s biggest surprises with “Wrapped Around Your Finger.” The Police’s 1983 classic is almost completely transformed. Rather than treating it as a straightforward cover, In This Moment drag the song into their own darker universe, reworking it into a haunting anthem of accusation and confession. The familiar words suddenly feel more sinister in Brink’s hands, with the relationship at the center of the song becoming an emotional reckoning between two people who understand exactly what they’ve done to each other.
It’s a great example of how to approach a cover song: don’t simply reproduce it. Find something inside it that belongs to you.
“Heretic,” featuring Kim Dracula, follows as one of Witch’s most natural collaborations. Both artists thrive on unpredictability, theatricality and genre collision, and Kim Dracula’s presence fits comfortably inside the strange world In This Moment have constructed rather than feeling like a guest appearance added simply for novelty.
But perhaps the album’s most revealing moment arrives with “Father.” It may very well be the most autobiographical song Maria Brink has ever written. Brink opens herself up in a way that feels almost uncomfortably intimate, laying the trauma out in front of the listener and allowing fans to dissect it without providing an easy explanation for exactly what they’re hearing.
There are multiple ways to interpret “Father.” It could be the perspective of a child confronting a father who abandoned his family. It could just as easily represent someone trying to process the death of their father and everything that was left unsaid.
That ambiguity makes the song even more affecting. Brink doesn’t neatly explain the trauma for us. She simply exposes it.
“Without Me There’s No You” moves toward something far more accepting. It’s a confessional love song about finally finding someone willing to accept everything you bring with you. The good, the bad, the damage, the scars, the growth and all of the complicated pieces in between. There’s vulnerability in the song, but musically it has the scope of an arena anthem. It’s easy to imagine thousands of voices eventually singing it back at Brink.
Then comes another dramatic reinterpretation with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall,” featuring Kat Von D. Its inclusion feels perfectly suited to Witch. A song historically associated with resistance and refusing conformity becomes another piece of an album centered around identity, empowerment and refusing to allow others to define your worth.
Kat Von D’s appearance also connects the album with In This Moment’s recent touring history. She supported the band during 2025’s Hell Hath No Fury Tour, making her presence here feel less like a random collaboration and more like an extension of a creative relationship already established between the artists.
And finally, Witch closes with “Something I Can Never Have.”
In This Moment had already introduced audiences to their interpretation of the Nine Inch Nails classic during the 2025 Hell Hath No Fury Tour, but its placement at the end of Witch gives the song additional weight. Rather than attempting to replicate Trent Reznor’s original, In This Moment somehow make an already haunting song feel even more desolate. Piano hangs over pulsing drums while Brink’s vocals carry the emotional weight, transforming the song into a slow, hypnotic ballad. At nearly seven minutes, the band gives it room to breathe. Nothing feels rushed.
It’s an inspired choice for the album’s final moments.
After a record filled with anger, realization, confrontation, acceptance, love and exposed trauma, Witch doesn’t conclude with a massive scream or crushing breakdown. It ends with longing for the one thing you can never have.
Transformation Rather Than Reinvention is a theme that runs deep in Witch. There is something particularly fitting about Witch containing three reinterpretations of other artists’ songs. The Police, Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails created music with dramatically different identities, yet In This Moment manage to bring all three into their world. None of the covers feel like karaoke exercises or obligatory bonus tracks. Each is filtered through the band’s own musical and theatrical identity until it becomes part of Witch.
That willingness to transform remains essential to In This Moment themselves. Twenty-one years after their formation, they aren’t the same band that emerged in 2005. They aren’t supposed to be. Each era has added another layer: metalcore aggression, industrial textures, electronic experimentation, gothic influences, cinematic production and the increasingly elaborate visual world surrounding Brink’s performances.
Witch doesn’t discard any of those identities. It draws them together. The result feels less like another reinvention and more like an accumulation of everything In This Moment have learned how to become.
The album’s guest appearances reinforce that evolution rather than distract from it. Rory Rodriguez, Kim Dracula and Kat Von D each enter the band’s world without overwhelming it, while Brink remains the gravitational center around which everything revolves. And through it all, Chris Howorth and the band provide the weight beneath her, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes punishing, and frequently both.
The next era of In This Moment arrives with a mantra: “Your voice, our flame. Set your truth on fire.”
It’s difficult to imagine a more appropriate declaration for a band whose career has increasingly centered around transformation, empowerment and finding strength in the parts of ourselves others might prefer remain hidden. With Witch, In This Moment haven’t abandoned their past. They’ve thrown it into the fire and used it to create something new.
Witch Track Listing
1. Shame
2. I Want To Believe (feat. Dayseeker)
3. Crawl
4. Into The Dark
5. Sleeping With The Enemy
6. Wrapped Around Your Finger
7. Heretic (feat. Kim Dracula)
8. Father
9. Without Me There’s No You
10. Another Brick In The Wall (feat. Kat Von D)
11. Something I Can Never Have
Witch arrives August 28, 2026 through Better Noise Music.
