IN THIS MOMENT pick fave music, movie, live show and more of 2023 | Revolver

IN THIS MOMENT pick fave music, movie, live show and more of 2023

Maria Brink and Chris Howorth look back on a great year
maria brink chris howorth split 1600x900, Jeremy Saffer
Maria Brink (left) and Chris Howorth
photograph by Jeremy Saffer

In This Moment are cover stars of Revolver's Winter 2023 Issue, which you can order, along with an exclusive, limited-edition In This Moment shirt, at our shop.

"2023 was a big year," Chris Howorth says proudly. He's not exaggerating.

This year, his band In This Moment dropped one of the best albums of 2023, GODMODE, toured arenas, had a song featured in John Wick: Chapter 4 and made some big plans for 2024.

Before 2023 comes to a close, we caught up with Howorth and In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink about the last 12 months of music, movies, live shows and more.

WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER IN THIS MOMENT'S BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT OF 2023?
CHRIS HOWORTH I think our biggest, proudest achievement is this new album GODMODE. And I would say that's kind of cliché because anybody who has a new album coming out is gonna say that.

But we went through the whole COVID pandemic with no new music coming out and weren't sure what was gonna be happening — like everybody else. We had all that on our shoulders, we've all been going through our own things, and releasing this album and how smoothly it all came together and how it all felt doing it...

We were saying "flow like a river" and quit worrying about every little thing over and over and just try to enjoy the process and just do it. And I think that's how it all came about. So that definitely, 100 percent, for me would be the crowning achievement of 2023.

MARIA BRINK I also agree, GODMODE coming together and the way that that happened. But I gotta show some love to [us being in] a John Wick movie this year. That was massive.

And then for us, we just headlined ... I'm originally from Albany, New York, and I started out at little, tiny theaters that hold 40 or 50 people there. Little mini clubs. And I just got to headline there on my last tour with an arena and pyro and it was just such a full-circle for me. My heart was full of love.

HOWORTH The tour was a big thing, too, for me. I was thinking while we were in it, "I can't believe this." This is the biggest we've ever been, this is what you think about when you're a little kid wanting to do it and we're here doing it. It's just crazy.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE NEW BANDS YOU DISCOVERED THIS YEAR?
HOWORTH
For me, there's a band I found on Pandora. Because I sit and play video games a lot when I'm not doing music, and I smoke and listen to new metal stations and try to find new good bands that I like. I've never grown out of that. And I found this band called In Retrospect that are from England. And they're really cool and heavy, and hopefully they do really well. They're brand new.

And then there's this band Slaughter to Prevail that's blowing up, everybody's loving them right now.

And there's another band called Sylosis, and they've been around for a long time. They've always been cool, they've always had cool music. But their new album is super awesome and I think that this might be a big shift for them as well.

BRINK I think the newest thing I've been listening to that I'm loving is the new ††† (Crosses). I also love HEALTH, I've gotten into them a lot. Immortal Girlfriend is another one that I'm really loving. And Cannons.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE BAND YOU SAW LIVE THIS YEAR?
BRINK
I think I'm gonna say the same as Chris but I'm waiting for him to say it.

HOWORTH No, I'm gonna say something completely off the wall. Because I didn't watch a lot of bands this year even though we toured a lot. I'm gonna say Suicide Silence. They have a new album that came out, they're crushing it.

I saw them at the festival in Wisconsin and they crushed during the day so I'm gonna give it up to them.

BRINK Because it was nostalgic to me from when I was younger and all that, I'll say Pantera. They reunited, we did some festivals with them, and I went out and watched. And there was just that feeling of bringing you back watching it that makes me feel so nostalgic inside.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE OF 2023?
BRINK
I'm gonna pick John Wick! [Laughs] There's a new horror movie that just came out, it's epic. It's called Talk to Me. Actually, it's really scary.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED FOR IN 2024?
HOWORTH
GODMODE is out and 2024 is pretty much the GODMODE touring year. So I'm excited for whatever we do in 2024, and just another year, man.

Having an album out and everything, it should be exciting and cool. We've got some cool plans lined up for touring and seeing everybody.

BRINK I'm exciting for all the things we're trying to manifest. Everything around GODMODE, basically. New soundtracks, new movies. We want to get in the video game world.

HOWORTH I'm excited for Dune 2.