Freshly released on 28th August 2026 through Better Noise Music is the ninth studio album, titled Witch, by American metal band In This Moment. Three singles have already been released in the build-up to the new album: ‘Heretic’, ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ and ‘Crawl’.
The band’s unmistakeable vocalist Maria Brink has shared the meaning behind the album Witch:
“Witch is my declaration of inner transformation”, Brink comments. “It’s about embracing the duality within – taking pain, persecution, and struggle – and alchemizing them into strength and power. The album reflects both ancient trials and my own journey – where being a ‘witch’ means being a creator, connected to the universe, manifesting my own reality.”
After hearing Maria Brink’s description of the spirit behind this new album, I must admit to being seriously excited to get my claws on it and dig in. On first glance, Witch appears deep with animalistic emotion; besides, who doesn’t love a witch right? So, let’s get this album started!
The first highlight track that I’ll talk about is ‘Shame’, which is also the album opener. The intro to this track is the real standout, being eerily beautiful with the pagan-esque, Norse inspired scream / chant / sing-along vocals that very quickly take an abrupt tempo change to drop to a heavy metal sound; the classic style from In This Moment. An attention grabbing way to open an album for sure.
The second track that I’m highlighting is ‘Crawl’. I seriously can’t put into words how obsessed I am with this track; from Brink’s raw and brutal vocals, to the bold and thunderous instruments that come together to create unflinching attitude throughout the whole song. There’s some utterly out of this world screams towards the end of the track too, but could we really expect anything less? I just know that this track is going to be a deep personal favourite for a very long time; the raw and uncensored female rage is what absolutely hooks me here.
My third highlight track is ‘Heretic’, which features the genre-bending Kim Dracula. I absolutely love how chaotically heavy and shameless this track is; bringing in Kim Dracula is a work of pure genius, mixing things up and giving off something of a Joker vibe during certain segments. Listening to this track is like all the party poppers in the world all going off in a cemetery, with glitter and confetti dusting the headstones. At least, that’s how I can see it in my head when I listen to this song; there’s such a juxtaposition of sounds here as pure madness is unleashed.
The fourth and final highlight track for me has got to be ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ featuring Kat Von D. This was a very surprising cover and I absolutely love how In This Moment have taken a huge gamble to make it their own; it’s so unique to the original. Reimagining the Pink Floyd classic to be modernised and heavier was always going to be interesting; to cap things off, the band have brought in Kat Von D to offer an enthralling contrast between the powerful and brutal vocals of Maria Brink, and the softer dreamy vocals of Kat Von D.
All in all, I found Witch to be a deep and gripping album that tells not just what Maria Brink has gone through, but what the women of the world have thrown at them all too often. It’s a tale of “You have to look and act this way because that’s what’s expected of you, but not too much because then you’re just showing off. Make sure you have enough of an opinion to be interesting, but don’t be too opinionated because no one likes a woman that know’s it all”. This album absolutely lives up to Brink’s vision of what it stands for; using everything that’s meant to break us to claim back personal power. For me personally, this album has spoken volumes and been something that can connect with on an emotional level; that’s what great music is all about, so for that reason I feel this has been one of the strongest albums of 2026 I’ve heard so far. I hope that In This Moment carries on with the amazing work and that Maria Brink never stops being the woman she is; if that’s enough to make a woman a witch, then let’s see some more magic.
