American metalcore band
American metalcore band
Motionless In White is an American metalcore band from Scranton, Pennsylvania. The band was founded in 2005 and became known for their dark lyrics and gothic appearance. MIW currently has two EPs and five full-length albums. The dark atmosphere of the tracks is emphasized by the keyboards. The theme of the lyrics contains stories of horror, heartbreak and madness, combined with sci-fi.
Musical style and influences
The band is described by AllMusic as a blend of metalcore, gothic metal and industrial metal. They have also been called "horror-metal". The group's song structure commonly features intricate riffs coupled with occasional blast beats during verses and breakdowns present in songs. The band's keyboard effects are also noted, having been claimed to add a "dark and uneasy atmosphere" to the group's music on their debut album Creatures. The sound on their second album, Infamous, was said to have resembled Marilyn Manson's by Alternative Press, Revolver and Kerrang!
Discography
Creatures (2010)
Infamous (2012)
Reincarnate (2014)
Graveyard Shift (2017)
Disguise (2019)
Scoring the End of the World (2022)
May 19, 2018
On May 6, 2018, Chris Motionless announced via Instagram that a new record would be released in 2019. He claimed that he, along with Ryan Sitkowski and Ricky Olson, would begin full-time writing prior to touring with Warped Tour that summer.
Throughout the summer of 2018, the band embarked on the final cross-country run of Vans Warped Tour, spanning from June 21 to August 5, 2018. After the departure of Devin Sola, the band reunited with former guitarist TJ Bell for the tour. Once the tour wrapped, the band took the rest of the year off, with the exception of a few festivals, Halloween shows, and a club show in their hometown of Scranton, to work on the upcoming album. For their final appearances of 2018, Justin Morrow of Ice Nine Kills toured with them on bass guitar.
On May 10, the band released their third single "Undead Ahead 2: The Tale of the Midnight Ride" and its corresponding music video.
Before the band was set to embark on their "Disguise Tour" in Europe, the band embarked on "The Trick 'R Treat Tour" in which they were headliners, along with some east coast shows with In This Moment. The band also announced that they would be touring with Beartooth on "The Diseased and Disguised Tour" in January 2020. As 2019 came to a close, they announced multiple shows at European festivals over the summer such as Rock am Ring and Graspop Metal Meeting along with a show in Warsaw, Poland with August Burns Red, marking their first time ever in the country of Poland. However, all of the European shows are cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2020, during a livestream interview, Chris Motionless announced that they were already working on their next album, and assured that the songs for the album will be heavier, although the recording could be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 9, the band released their cover of The Killers' "Somebody Told Me" on streaming music services. On October 5, the band announced that they'll release a 10th anniversary re-issue of the album titled Creatures X on October 9. They have also announced a special livestream where they'll perform it in full.
On May 14, 2021, the band released the final of what they call "The Quarantine Experiments" in the form of a synthwave-edition of their song "Voices". On August 20, the band released a new single titled "Timebomb".
2016
Vocalist Chris Motionless has stated that their new album will not be released through Fearless Records. On June 23, 2016, Motionless In White released the single titled "570", from the band's forthcoming studio album, which will be released via Roadrunner Records. In the fall of 2016, the band embarked on the Nocturnal Underground tour with Breaking Benjamin and Korn. On October 31, Roadrunner announced the album was to be titled Graveyard Shift. The band reached out to the fans with a contest to design the new album's artwork.
Motionless in White live at Rock im Park 2017
On January 10, 2017, keyboardist Josh Balz announced his departure from the band after 10 full years. He cited that he wanted more time available to run his oddities parlor, "The Strange and Unusual".
On January 26, the band released the second single from Graveyard Shift, titled "Eternally Yours". A day later, it was revealed that Graveyard Shift is set to be released on May 5, 2017. The band also revealed they were opening an artwork contest for the new album, the winner of which would have their artwork featured for Graveyard Shift.
On March 3, the band revealed the album's official artwork created by Crystal Johnson and tracklist, followed by the release of their third single, "LOUD (Fuck It)".
2014
On January 23, 2014, the band announced a short headlong tour in March with The Plot in You, Like Moths to Flames, For the Fallen Dreams and The Defiled with For Today appearing in San Antonio. Following the tour the band would enter the studio to work on their follow-up to their 2012 album, Infamous.
On February 5, Motionless in White was announced to play the Vans Warped Tour on the main stage. Later that month, drummer Brandon Richter released a statement that he will no longer be part of the band; however, he has thanked all of the support he has gained and has left on good terms, although he won't give out any specific reasons to leaving the band.
On April 23, 2014, the band's third studio album, Reincarnate, was announced through social media, with an intended release date of September 16, 2014. The band stated that they remain as a quintet and will be working with touring and session drummers. On June 11, Fearless Records released a video featuring the album's artwork and contained a teaser for their next upcoming single of the same name, which was to be released on July 1 however was delayed to July 8. The band was announced as a support act for A Day to Remember's tour titled Parks & Devastation Tour that takes place throughout September and October, and will be supporting them alongside Bring Me the Horizon and Chiodos. The band also announced a co-headline tour with gothic metal band Lacuna Coil in Europe, with the gothic metal band Devilment (fronted by Cradle of Filth frontman Dani Filth) supporting them. The tour started at the end of October continuing through November.
During the summer of 2015 Motionless in White toured along with Slipknot, Lamb of God, and Bullet for My Valentine as part of the Summer's Last Stand Tour running from July 24 to September 5.
2012
In early 2012, Motionless in White contributed to the Kerrang! Metallica The Black Album: Covered on the song, "My Friend of Misery."
Motionless in White decided on working with two separate producers to accomplish a very wide array of sounds and styles for Infamous. It was then announced that Infamous was to be produced by Jason Suecof and musician Tim Sköld. On September 25 "Devil's Night" was released as the first single for the album. On October 9, their second single "If It's Dead, We'll Kill It" was released.On November 13, 2012, the music video for the single "Devil's Night" was released, along with the full album itself. Infamous initially hit No. 53 on the Billboard 200, No. 19 on Top Rock Albums, No. 9 on Top Independent Albums, and No. 5 on Top Hard Rock Albums.
Motionless in White's ex-drummer, Angelo Parente, announced his departure from the band on March 11 via Tumblr, saying 'After doing this since I was 17, the nonstop touring, and everything else that comes with the life of a musician has finally caught up with me.'. He has left the band on good terms, and there is no sign of internal rifts. Brandon Richter formally of 'The Witch Was Right' was announced as the replacement drummer on April 23, 2013. This action left Chris Motionless as the band's last original member.
On April 23, the band released the third single from Infamous, "America", accompanied by a lyric video. On June 3, another video, directed by Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan, was released for the single. The video also starred Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn. On June 11, 2013, Motionless in White released the Deluxe Edition of Infamous, featuring remixed and remastered versions of all the original tracks, alongside two new songs, remixes by Celldweller, Combichrist and Ricky Horror, and re-recorded drums by Richter.
Motionless in White did their first full UK tour in September 2013 with The Defiled and Glamour of the Kill. They later supported acts such as In This Moment on the 'Hellpop Tour' in October to November and All That Remains in November to December 2013. Motionless in White performed at the 2013 Mayhem Festival.
2009
After the release of When Love Met Destruction, bassist Frank Polumbo departed Motionless in White due to unknown reasons, leaving Bellevue, Washington native, Ricky "Horror" Olson as their new permanent bass player in October 2009. Months later, Motionless in White entered the studio during May 2010 to record their debut full-length, Creatures with Andrew Wade as the chosen producer. The record's first single, "Abigail", premiered in Revolver Magazine on August 30 and was the released on iTunes the day after. A music video for the song was released a few months afterwards, along with following music videos over the next 2 years for title track "Creatures", the first track of the record "Immaculate Misconception" and a live music video for "Puppets (The First Snow)" which was filmed during the band's summer on The All Stars Tour in 2011.
Creatures was released on October 12, 2010, through Fearless, and claimed the 175th slot on the Billboard Top 200 charts, and No. 6 on the Heatseekers chart.
On Wednesday May 4, 2011, guitarist Thomas Joseph "TJ" Bell was fired from the band. Reasons for the matter explained from Bell's perspective were that while he was handling bass substitution duties for Escape the Fate, he was expected to meet along with the rest of Motionless in White in Orlando, Florida by that tour's end. According to the band, Bell left in the middle of Motionless in White's tour schedule to fill-in as a bassist for Escape the Fate and also did not inform the rest of the members early enough in advance that he would not be available during those weeks. This action forced the band to be without their rhythm guitar parts during their performances.
2005
Motionless in White was founded in 2005 by members Chris Motionless, who played guitar and lead vocals, Angelo Parente on drums, Frank Polumbo on guitar and Kyle White on bass during high school. They incepted many other titles into the group until finally settling on what would be Motionless in White. Chris Motionless and other members have noted bands such as Poison the Well, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Johnny Cash, Depeche Mode, and other musical groups as their inspiration. In 2005, they released their self-distributed demo.
The band parted ways with guitarist Michael Costanza and brought in current guitarist Ryan Sitkowski as his replacement.Despite being signed to Fearless before the months leading up to the release of the EP form of When Love Met Destruction, it was distributed through Tragic Hero on February 17, 2009. The song "Ghost in the Mirror" was made as the band's first ever single and had a music video produced for it.