A Star-Crossed Wasteland
| A Star-Crossed Wasteland | ||||
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| Studio album by In This Moment | ||||
| Released | July 9, 2010 (See Release history) |
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| Recorded | January–April 2010 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:08 | |||
| Label | Century Media | |||
| Producer | Kevin Churko | |||
| In This Moment chronology | ||||
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| Singles from A Star-Crossed Wasteland | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| About.com |    |
| AllMusic | |
| Alternative Press | |
| Boston Herald | B+ |
| Metalholic | (9.4/10) |
| PopMatters |   |
| Rock Sound | |
| Sputnikmusic | |
| 411mania.con | |
A Star-Crossed Wasteland is the third studio album by American metal band In This Moment. The album was first released in Germany on July 9, 2010 and later in the United States by Century Media and was named by Alternative Press as one of the most anticipated releases of 2010. This is the first album not to feature bassist Jesse Landry; it is also the band's last album to feature new bassist Kyle Konkiel, and founding members rhythm guitarist Blake Bunzel and drummer Jeff Fabb.
Before the band started their first headlining tour in late 2009, vocalist Maria Brink announced that they had begun writing songs for their upcoming third album to be released the following summer. In January, the band described the sounds of A Star-Crossed Wasteland in a Myspace posting, talking about their plans for 2010:
Brink says working with Churko was the obvious choice: "We worked with Kevin Churko on the last album, and that's who we want. He's our dude. He can take the second album that we just had, still go heavy, but not sound just like our first album and grow into something new and evolved. We want to move up without sounding like we've gone backwards."
Production and recording began in February 2010 at the Wolve's Den in Las Vegas. This is also the first studio album to feature new bass player, Kyle Konkiel. The album was completed in April and Brink announced the release date during an interview at the Revolver Golden God Awards.
In January 2009, Brink revealed two working song titles, "The Gun Show" and "The World Is On Fire" on her website. Lyrically, Brink drew inspiration from her personal life, mostly the ending of her relationship with Devildriver bassist Jon Miller. She describes her experiences on the album title and its meaning, "I wrote about my experiences and kinda this metaphorical story type thing. There is definitely an underlying theme for this whole entire album of this post-apocalyptic wasteland world and 'star-crossed lovers' is obviously where these two people are meant to basically fail and it's not gonna work out, so it's this Star-Crossed Wasteland world."
The sound of A Star-Crossed Wasteland takes elements from both Beautiful Tragedy and The Dream, but with a darker and heavier sound. Chris Howorth describes: "We went in a much heavier direction on this album. We feel it’s our defining album. Just the right mix of aggression and melody." Howorth also does the backing vocals for many of the songs such as "Iron Army", "The Road", and "The Last Cowboy". "The Promise" is a duet featuring vocals by Adrian Patrick, lead singer of Otherwise. Originally, the male vocal parts were intended for Ivan L. Moody of Five Finger Death Punch.
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