Crawl

The best pure vocal performance in this batch. Maria Brink spends the verses percussive and controlled, almost spoken-word tight against the riff, then detonates into a chorus that’s as melodic as it is enormous — with screaming thrown in at exactly the moments the song needs teeth. Thematically, “Crawl” is a reckoning song in the most literal sense: those who dominate and cause pain will be brought to their knees. It’s not subtle, and it isn’t trying to be — In This Moment have built a career on operatic, confrontational hard rock, and “Crawl” is one of the sharpest examples of that mode they’ve released.

With Witch pulling in guests like Dayseeker, Kim Dracula, and a Kat Von D cover of “Another Brick in the Wall,” this single is doing real work as an album-announcement centerpiece, and it holds up completely on its own. 8.4/10 — confrontational hard rock at its sharpest, with a vocal performance that carries the whole record.

Hero image: In This Moment performing in Austin, Texas, 2016, by Ralph Arvesen, licensed under CC BY 2.0.