AN OPEN LETTER TO IN THIS MOMENT

Dear Maria Brink and the Other Anonymous Dudes from In This Moment,

First of all, I think we all got off on the wrong foot and I’d like to apologize. I know I’ve said some not very nice things about certain members of your band in the past, things that were completely superficial and in no way related to your music. And my own feelings about your physical appearance aside, I hear that you’re actually very nice people. So I hope we can leave the past in the past and just live in this moment.

(Sorry. I couldn’t resist).

Last week you released a free mp3 on your MySpace page of several of your members, including Ms. Brink, performing a cover of Pantera’s “I’m Broken” with the nice men from Talking Metal. Mostly I thought your version of the song served as a nice illustration of why Phil Anselmo was, in his heyday, one of the best screamers in all of metal. I mean, I guess musically you sounded okay enough – your guitar player is no Dimebag, but then, who is? – but really, I didn’t like Maria’s vocals. At all.

But I chose to keep my mouth shut, because, well, some perfectly respectable people thought Maria acquitted herself quite admirably.

But now you’ve posted another cover of a classic metal song on your MySpace page for free download – this time, a version of Slayer’s “Postmortem.” And, once again, your take on the song serves as little more than a reminder of what made the original so great.

In fact, the very first thing I noticed about the song was the fact that your drummer is no Dave Lombardo. The second thing I noticed was that scream-whisper thing Maria is doing. Now, Tom Araya was never a very good singer, but still, I’d like to take this opportunity to ask Maria to please cut it out.

I’m serious. Cut it out already.

I guess what I’m saying is, maybe all these covers are really exciting for your fourteen year old fans who have no recollection whatsoever of the originals, and if your “reinterpretation” of these classics inspire some kid to go buy a copy of Far Beyond Driven or Reign in Blood, than, um, I guess that’s all good.

But mostly, I just want to ask you to stop doing covers. Please just stick to making your own shitty music. It looks like you’ll have a new album out in the fall. That should leave you plenty of your own crap to make sound terrible.

Warm regards,

W. Axl Rosenberg Co-Founder/Co-Editor-in-Chief, MetalSucks

P.S. Seriously though, cut it out already.