In This Moment: The GODMODE Tour with special guests Kim Dracula and Nathan James

In This Moment

Maria Brink – lead vocals, piano| Chris Howorth – lead guitar, backing vocals | Travis Johnson – bass, backing vocals |Randy Weitzel – rhythm guitar, backing vocals |Kent Diimmel – drums

 

With a Grammy nomination (“The In-Between,” 2021), platinum and gold record sales, multiple

Top 25 entries on the Billboard Top 200 (“Black Widow” and “Ritual”), hits including “Whore,”

“Blood,” and ”Adrenalize” and career streams of more than 1.3 billion, you’d think In This

Moment might rest on their laurels. Instead, they’ve created GODMODE, 10 dynamic songs that

mark a new high for the quintet, further cementing their legacy in the heavy music world. Proof

positive is in GODMODE’s first single, the industrial-heavy yet ultra-melodic “THE PURGE,” and

its darkly cinematic video directed by Jensen Noen (Bring Me The Horizon, Demi Lovato). From

the portentous start of the ‘90s-tinged “GODMODE” with Maria Brink’s powerful primal scream

to the pitch-perfect cover of Bjork’s 1995 “Army of Me” to the impassioned pain to partnership in

“EVERYTHING STARTS AND ENDS WITH YOU,” GODMODE is a cut above.

The L.A.-based band’s eighth album finds vocalist Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth

writing the most powerful songs of their career. “We’re always striving for reinvention and

growth. It’s been 10 years since our Blood album, and there's been a lot of transitions

happening, this year particularly, but it all felt so meant to be,” explains Brink.

Top talent aided and abetted In this Moment; Spencer Charnas from Ice Nine Kills guests on the

pointed and pained “DAMAGED,” and several songs were co-written with Tyler Bates, the

award-winning producer and composer of numerous film, television, and video game scores. In

fact, the initial collaboration with Bates, the moody, haunting mid-tempo winner “I WOULD DIE

FOR YOU” ended up both on the John Wick: Chapter 4 soundtrack and as the last cut on

GODMODE.

In This Moment, a touring juggernaut who’ve slayed stages worldwide at Ozzfest, Warped Tour,

Download, Knotfest and Rocklahoma, put out Mother in 2020, during the pandemic, giving fans

something to hold on in during that bleak time, and earning “The In-Between” the band’s first

Grammy nod. It was 2021 when Howorth and Brink first wrote with Bates on “I WOULD DIE

FOR YOU.” Following that collaboration, the duo were writing organically, for pleasure, not

focused on the next album. As the pandemic waxed and waned, Howorth learned programming,

and created music around synthwave sounds, which Brink leaned into. Her lyrical ideas arose

both from soul-searching and “humanity and so much crisis and so many heart-wrenching

things in the world. That negativity and darkness is how songs like ‘THE PURGE’’ came about,”

Brink explains.

 

The end result is that when In This Moment went into the studio in January 2023, the easy flow

had allowed them to compile the most songs they’d ever written at one time, songs the entire

band loved. Longtime producer Kevin Churko helped shape ITM’s sound starting in 2008, but

for GODMODE, his son, Kane Churko, was at the helm. “Kane’s got all the strengths that his

father taught him--everything, all the bells and whistles, but he's got some new tricks because

he's a younger generation, he’s hungry,” says Brink.

Kane was the perfect match for In This Moment’s inspired songs “During the pandemic, just

writing versus writing with a pressure that music has to be for an album, allowed us the freedom

to make the record we made,” says Howorth.

GODMODE’s songs gained even more strength in the studio, with Kane shaking up the band’s

usual m.o. even further. “Having some songs by Tyler influenced us as well,” Brink explains. “It

was scary for the band, but it ended up flowing just so beautifully. We felt very experimental.”

That flow gave the album its name and theme. GODMODE isn’t religious, rather it’s an

expression for a triumphant flow state where all comes together seamlessly, coalescing into an

ultimate form. As Brink sings in “GODMODE,” “You got me feeling so high / You lift me off of my

feet yeah / You got me feeling like, feeling like / I’m in Godmode.” In video games – Howorth

plays the game “Destiny” – “God mode” also refers to a code that makes a player invincible.

“There’s a spontaneity in this album that you can hear. It's a little more visceral. And that we're

not with Kevin, who has done all our albums except for our very first, fans will hear those

differences too, which is really cool and exciting for us,” Howorth says.

“We had all this built-up energy from the last three years, we felt angst, we felt we had a lot to

release,” furthers Brink. “And we were letting it loose organically, while also playing with different

time signatures and interesting things like that.”

“We use an 8-string on the album, which we haven't done before,” Howorth says. “We did some

different tunings, and it can definitely be freeing from guitar standpoint, the way we did things

this time. Working with Kane was different and more off the cuff, being in the studio, getting

creative and just trying a bunch of different stuff on every song. It was a really good experience.”

As fans of Brink’s lyrics know, life in and around In This Moment hasn’t always been easy. As

Brink recalls, “When I met Chris, I was just a starry-eyed girl with huge dreams. And he was in a

Pantera-like metal band!” She told Howorth she wanted a heavy lineup that could sell platinum

and win Grammys. The band had an early manager who told them it would never happen. But

his dismissiveness only fueled In This Moment’s fire, energy and fight. “We’re just relentless,”

says Brink. “Anything's possible if you really put your mind and energy into it.”

For GODMODE, that energy also went into the “THE PURGE” video, where director Noen

brought his artistry and next-level talent to Brink’s storyboard ideas. The larger-than-life video

themes and sets have been translated into In This Moment’s live stage show, literally. And

summer 2023 saw the band on its first arena co-headlining tour with full pyrotechnics. “Our

whole lives we’ve talked about being in an arena and having fire and a full show,” Brink says.

“And now we're doing it and it's just so beautiful.”

In this Moment certainly have nothing to prove, the lineup’s authority assured live on record and

onscreen. Yet, GODMODE’s energy and scope is visceral. “With our new ideas and excitement

and Kane’s energy of wanting to prove himself to everybody, we were able to show that we're

 

heavy and just as impactful as every other new band coming out right now,” says Howorth. “We

can punch you right in the face, that energy is in there big, time. I think our fans are really gonna

like this album, because it’s taken us back a little bit where it began, but it’s also more

instinctive, and heavier than anything we've done a long time,” concludes Howorth.

Brink, a private person, nonetheless gives and takes much strength from ITM’s millions of fans.

The healing is on both sides. “It’s amazing if my songs help people feel empowered. When

humans share painful things that we went through and how we heal from it, we can help each

other and pass that energy on,” she says. “Honestly, the most beautiful thing about being in a

band is being able to have that connection with strangers who become kindred spirits. Sure, I

have urges to wear ‘masks’ and hide from everything and wear makeup, but I like to share and

be honest and vulnerable. The sky's the limit,” Brink concludes. “You just have to keep

dreaming, keep expanding, keep pushing yourself to that next level. I feel like something is

shifting right now in the band; this is such a special moment for us with GODMODE.”

 

# # #

 

GODMODE SONG BY SONG:

1 “GODMODE”: Chris: Maria sent me a voice note, going ‘gdigit gdigit, gdigit gdigit’ [robotic

noises] and she was singing over it. It sounded like ‘Godmode,’ and that's where the name came from.

Maria: The lyrics, came from feeling powerful and tribal and entrancing. The fact that Chris gets me so

much that I can literally send him a voicemail and he sends it back to me in music form shows how in tune

we are. It’s been a long time since I screamed on an entire verse for a song. I wanted to release a bunch

of stuff and it felt visceral.

2 “THE PURGE”: Maria: Chris taught himself how to program, and then he was sending all this

innovative, amazing stuff, blowing me away song by song. When I heard “THE PURGE,” I knew it was

special; I started laughing because I was like, ‘I can't believe what I'm listening to right now.’ Chris: During

the pandemic, we were sending ideas back and forth. Not necessarily for the band; just writing ideas for

their own sake. I had put together the demo for ‘THE PURGE.’ Maria was like, ‘That's so sick, dude.

That's gonna be the first single I swear!’ Maria: I'm being sarcastic in that song; it was how I feel after I

watched the news and every channel is at war with the other channel and everyone's at war with each

other and everything is chaos and it makes me want to go live in the woods. That wasn't one of the happy

songs!

3 “ARMY OF ME”: (Bjork cover) Maria: I was a teenager when I first got into Bjork. I was

mesmerized by her. She has a really inspiring energy to a lot of her stuff, an enlightening feeling. She's

just so innovative and groundbreaking and inspiring and magical. Chris: Maria played me three different

Bjork songs to see which I thought would be the best. This was the one. I didn't know it was gonna come

out as cool as it is. It's so rockin’.

4 “SACRIFICE”: Maria: It's about not letting people hold you down, not letting anyone tell you what

you can't be and what you can't accomplish. Setting yourself on something and not being afraid to be it

and become it and experience it; you can manifest it; you can't let people get in your way. Those

verses.... I’m a huge Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Bjork, Prodigy fan; I’m a 90s music girl. It sounds like all these

different things kind of combined. I feel like I'm like levitating in the air with fire burning under me; I feel so

powerful when I hear that song.

 

5 “SKYBURNER”: Chris: I sent the main riff to Maria and we went to the studio with just that riff

and created the song. I play a video game called Destiny. So I started naming all our different demo song

titles after cool weapons in the game. One of the weapons was “Skyburner’s Oath.” Maria had this

visualization of what it was; nothing to do with guns. Maria: I’m a fire sign and I had a psychic tell me I

was burned as a witch in my last life and I’m always drawn to fire words and burning imagery. The song is

about two people who come together and have this euphoric spiritual connection, two people almost

becoming one.

6 “SANCTIFY ME”: Chris: This came right before we left to go to the studio. Maria sent me

another phone recording of her literally singing the intro, and I wrote based off that. Then when we got

into the studio Maria and Kane, and I the band would add other parts to it to make it become what it's

supposed to become. Everyone came into the party.

7 “EVERYTHING STARTS AND ENDS WITH YOU”: Maria: “The earth stood still / We burst alive /

The universe / And stars align /As we collide.” There's good in the world. Where the good people are,

where the good energy lies, where you put your focus, that's what's going to feed your soul. Be careful

and kind to yourself.

8 “DAMAGED”: Maria: Lyrically and emotionally it comes from a place of me going through a lot of

 

different traumatic things. I suffered from unworthiness. It’s a lot to be with somebody who has post-

traumatic stress. I have a lot of tics and things, and you can get into the mindset that you should just be

 

alone, so nobody has to deal with it. It’s sourcing back to that in my past. The back and forth with the guy

is someone actually feeling that they love you and understand you and they want to help you and they

want to go through it with you. And we have Spencer Charnas from Ice Nine Kills on this song, who we’ve

been wanting to work with for a while.

9 “FATE BRINGER”: Chris: We did this with Tyler. When we did “I WOULD DIE FOR YOU,” we

were messing around with this song as well. He basically had that beat thing going, but what happened in

the studio was Maria had her awesome lyrics, but Kane also did a bunch of really cool production things

on it. We all added our flair to that initial Tyler riff and it became what it is now.

10 “I WOULD DIE FOR YOU”: Maria: Technically it was the first song we wrote for the record, when

we wanted to see what it was like writing with Tyler. Chris: Once we did the record, this song was already

in the movie. But when we wrote it, we weren't sure what was happening with it. Maria: I knew I loved this

song. I wanted it to be a part of the album or something special. I didn't think they'd let us have it in the

movie and also the album, but it ended up being able to be on both, which was perfect.

 

In This Moment discography:

Beautiful Tragedy (2007)

The Dream (2008)

A Star-Crossed Wasteland (2010)

Blood (2012)

Black Widow (2014)

Ritual (2017)

Mother (2020)

GODMODE (2023)