Music Review // All-In Moment "All-In Moment"

https://open.spotify.com/album/7LpyqssUOQrkdylcLb2FtH?si=BPiSs2_4SlyJNp8ymxFqPg //

Listening to All-In Moment makes me think back to when Victory Records had bands such as Dead to Fall, Between the Buried and Me, Scars of Tomorrow and even BoySetsFire.   In some ways, All-In Moment reminds me of these bands.   But in other ways, it feels like All-In Moment would have fit in well with that early '00's Victory Records scene because they don't sound quite exactly like any of those bands.    They feel similar enough to be on the label, to play shows with the other bands, but different enough to stand on their own sound.

In the late '00's I stopped listening to a lot of new heavy music because I felt like it all followed the same formula of singing and screaming.   I longed for the days of bands who were just straight up brutal and didn't have to sing through the chorus.  I felt like that melodic hardcore became a staple at Hot Topic and I needed out.   So, perhaps, it is best for All-In Moment to not have been on Victory Records in the early '00's so they wouldn't have had to go through that whole experience.

The key difference between All-In Moment and a band which I don't like is that All-In Moment has these hardcore/metal sounds with melody but the melody is blended right into it all.  It feels like Atreyu in that way.   It doesn't feel like the songs are going from heavy to melody within the verses and chorus as if they were flipping a switch, which some artists do and I don't like that.   All-In Moment makes the melody just flow so naturally and if you're going to have that within your heavy sound I do feel as if this is the best way to do it.

Through big metal riffs, breakdowns and guitar chords that become crunchy, All-In Moment just demonstrates how to rock when you're all about going big or going home.   The urgency on their songs can remind me of System of a Down while a song which feels more like a ballad, "For You", makes me think of Finger Eleven.   I hear elements of POD and there is also some of that hard rock/hair metal type of sound which I always relate with the Chris Jericho band Fozzy for whatever reason.

These songs definitely rock and will even have you singing along, but then the question becomes what will you be singing about?   The first song seems to be about the government and has the line: "If life's a game then we are losing", which I don't disagree with.  Then "From Chaos Comes Clarity" and "Not That Far Away" seem to be more about philosophy in their overall message.   Music can serve as an escape from reality but I do enjoy the idea that these songs have that overall theme of not giving up and making it through the hard times because the better times are just up ahead.

When I listen to heavier music now, I tend to try and find music which just feels like it's ripping your face off (Daughters, for example)  I've never felt like I didn't listen to heavy music with melody because I didn't like it, I always just felt like I wasn't into certain artists which a lot of people seem to be simply because I didn't like how they created the music.  But if you're going to create music in the way which All-In Moment does (and I'm told they're creating new music as I type this) then I'm always down to blast it out of my speakers.