Motionless In White - Decades
For decades (no pun intended), Motionless In White has become a fixture in the metalcore community, whether you’ve loved or hated their contributions. To date, the band has released seven full-length albums, the latest of them being Decades, a genre-hopping entry indicative of their twenty years as a band. They’re currently out on the biggest tour of their careers, finally being catapulted to headlining the amphitheater and arena stages they were once opening. Decades is a fitting entry in the band’s catalog to celebrate this achievement; it’s equal parts heavy and silly, channeling the Scranton, PA five-piece’s penchant for the macabre throughout its twelve songs. Chris “Motionless” Cerulli delivers quite simply the best vocal performances of his career, whether he’s screaming his guts out (“Playing God”) or playing off vampiric tropes (“Love At First Bite”).
Much like the albums before it, Decades explores themes about a world crippling around us, with “log_in//crash_out” exploring the tyrant-like vicegrip that social media companies have over their users, while the album’s title track finds Cerulli screaming in defiance of the band’s detractors (“I built a fortress from stones that were thrown at me/Define a new day/Strike fast, this is your last chance to fight back/Earn your legacy”). Songs like “R.I.P.” (featuring Skylar Grey), “All That I’ve Ever Known”, and “Count Back From Zero” find Cerulli delivering the finest singing of his career while singing about eternal love; he’s really never sounded better.
The album’s tributes are cyclical in nature. One of the bands that inspired Motionless In White in the beginning was Slipknot, and vocalist Corey Taylor finds his way onto the album’s heaviest track, “Playing God”. Both men bark ferocious screams into the microphone, like they’re intentionally try to blow out the studio pre-amp that’s holding on for dear life. “Blood Rave” finds the band teaming up with newer act Dark Divine, themselves influenced by Motionless In White. The album closes with a goth-synth-pop cover of Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night”, Cerulli citing the track as something that he “wanted to do more than anything in the world” in a recent interview.
At times, the album veers off the beaten path and into dubstep territory. Sometimes, the results blend well (“Count Back From Zero”); other times, it feels a little out of place (“All That I’ve Ever Known”). The song that best finds the band blending electronica and metal elements together is “Afraid Of The Dark”, a fast-paced, scream-inducing metal track punctuated by industrial synth lines. “Fight Like Hell”, an anthem fit for a WWE Superstar’s entrance music, works well, even as Cerulli does his best Fred Durst impression in the second verse.
Motionless In White have steadily improved themselves as a band with every release over the last two decades. Decades is among some of their best work, even if some moments feel out of place. At the very least, they’re trying to branch out and make something that will impact and turn heads without playing it safe.
