Music / Motionless in White

Dapper as Fuck.

"So step up to the plate, and take your best fucking shot..."

— "Infamous"

Motionless in White is a Gothic Metalcore/Industrial Metal band from Scranton, Pennyslvania. Formed in 2005, they won a local Battle of the Bands contest, and soon after, released their first EP, The Whorror. They have a long history of playing Genre Roulette and have an impressively inconsistent lineup.

They are something of an Ensemble Dark Horse in the general Heavy Metal community, and have collaborated with Dani Filth, Shawn "Clown" Crahan, Maria Brink and Tim Skold.

Motionless In White's discography:

• The Whorror (EP) (2007)
• When Love Met Destruction (EP) (2009)
• Creatures (2010)
• Infamous (2012, re-released in 2013)
• Reincarnate (2014)
• Graveyard Shift (2017)
• Disguise (2019)
• Scoring the End of the World (2022)

YOU WANTED TROPES... YOU GOT THEM, MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEER!!!:

• The Aggressive Drug Dealer: "Everybody Sells Cocaine" presents bands that sell uplifting messages this way. The lyrics paint such bands as dealers of a quick high without offering anything of substance that might make the listener's life any better, getting people hooked on their messages.
• Atomic F-Bomb:
  • "Immaculate Misconception" opens with "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUCK!?"
  • "Unstoppable" contains the lyric "YOU WANTED A WAR... YOU GOT ONE, MOTHERFUCKER!"
• Cover Version: They have covered "Du Hast" by Rammstein.
  • And "Dragula", "Somebody Told Me", as well as live covers of "Skulls", "Mother", and "One Step Closer".
• Downer Ending: The "Break the Cycle" video ends with Chris being murdered by his Evil Twin, who then takes his place.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Devin Sola seen in this picture◊ while crossdressing in women's clothes. He grew a beard at one point, but quickly shaved it off and went back to crossdressing due to fan reactions.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Their early EPs and first album were much more in the manner of bands such as Black Veil Brides and early Bring Me the Horizon, with Chris Motionless sounding much more like a standard Metalcore vocalist using his natural voice rather than the banshee wailing and imitation of other vocalists he is currently known for.
  • Even earlier on when they were making demos in 2005 the band sounded more like From First to Last or Greeley Estates at that time, making post hardcore/emo, Chris had a more high pitched delivery which can be seen in Bleed in Black and White
• Epic Rocking: "Wasp" is seven minutes and one second.
• Facial Horror: The "Devil's Night" video has them cutting off people's "faces".
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": "We Put the Fun in Funeral" is fairly self-explanatory.
• Genre Roulette: Infamous shifts between almost every genre of Heavy Metal known to man.
• Genre Shift: From Gothic Metal to Industrial Metal, though with "570", they might be swinging back to Gothic.
• Hell Is That Noise: The "AMERICA" video opens with pigs squealing.
  • "If It's Dead, We'll Kill It" has a lot of higher screams.
• Hospital Hottie: "Rats" has the singer asking a pharmacist to "lock me up and bind my wrists" because he finds her sexy.
• I Am the Band: Chris was already the most recognizable member of the band, but Angelo's departure in 2013 left Chris as the only founding member left in the band and cemented this status.
• I Love the Dead: "Dead as Fuck", which about the singer having affection for someone who's either dead or undead. The lyrics are intentionally over-the-top, complete with the line "she may be fuckin' dead, but I don't care".
• Loudness War: All of their discography, but Infamous was remastered because of this.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Chris is becoming quite infamous for his habit of copying other singers, like Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Benjamin Burnley... just to name a few.
• Misogyny Song: Their early releases were full of songs like "The Whorror" and "She Never Made It to the Emergency Room".
  • "Abigail", arguably... though it is about Abigail Williams.
  • "Hatefuck" is another shining example.
  • "Synthetic Love" is probably the worst example.
• New Sound Album:
  • Attempted with Infamous, but Reincarnate is a better example as it adds much stronger Industrial Metal elements than their previous two albums.
  • Graveyard Shift drops the gothic metal part of their sound in favor of Nu Metal; however, both styles were mixed together in Disguise.
  • Scoring the End of The World returns to the Genre Roulette style of Infamous by adding elements of beatdown hardcore and deathcore, while also including influences from Hard Rock and Synth-Pop.
• Pretty Little Headshots: The "Break the Cycle" video averts this.
• Pun: "AMERICA"
  "Where downloading content will buy you a sentence".
• Revolving Door Band: Motionless in White has had 12 members, Chris being the only founding member left. The next longest-tenured is Ryan, who joined in 2008.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Chris stopped promoting the "Be Yourself" message in his songs altogether, because he feels it's become disingenuous. He even called it out on "Everybody Sells Cocaine", which is a veiled metaphor about bands pushing a positive message as selling drugs. The lyrics call such songs a quick high and little else.
• Sequel Song:
  • "Puppets (The First Snow)," "Puppets 2 (The Rain)," and "Puppets 3 (The Grand Finale)".
  • "Dead as Fuck" and "Not My Type (Dead as Fuck 2)".
  • "Undead Ahead" and "Undead Ahead 2: Tale of the Midnight Ride"
• Shout-Out:
  • "Abigail" is inspired by The Crucible, and the Tim Skold remix is named after the Malleus Maleficarum.
  • There are numerous allusions to Morrissey in the "Puppets" trilogy.
  • "Wasp" is about Lisbeth Salander.
  • "Dark Passenger" is inspired by Dexter.
  • "Dead as Fuck" references Evil Dead.
  • The "Break the Cycle" video is heavily inspired by Insidious.
  • "570" is this for their hometown of Scranton, and is named after its area code.
  • "Another Life" contains the lyric "Now the only way out's in your heart-shaped box."
• Slasher Smile: Chris' Evil Twin gives him one in the "Break the Cycle" video, right before shooting him in the head.
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: "The Ladder" describes this
• Spiritual Successor: To Marilyn Manson. Both bands have similar looking frontmen as well as a Revolving Door Band lineup and eccentric behavior.
  • And albums produced by Tim Skold.
  • And they have both performed with Rob Zombie... only difference is Motionless in White actually got along with Rob Zombie.
• Take That!:
  • "Everybody Sells Cocaine" is this to the metal/emo community. The message of the song is that bands in the subgenre know exactly what they're doing: feeding fans repetitive messages such as "It will get better!" without saying how or why, or doing anything new with the idea. As such, it's called out as an empty platitude.
  • "B.F.B.T.G.: Corpse Nation" is a callout of QAnon, the alt-right conspiracy theory about politicians being in a secret ring of Satanism, cannibalism, et cetera. Specifically, the song calls out the mindless nature that believers of the conspiracy have, blindly accepting anything that they're told without the strength to "deny it when the pageant drops" — that is, Moving the Goalposts when the predictions and theories are proven to be false. Just to hammer the point home, the song ends with a literal "Fuck you!" towards QAnon.
• That Man Is Dead: The "Reincarnate" video, where they literally bury their past selves.
• Tranquil Fury: In the "Immaculate Misconception" video; when spat on, Chris calmly takes off his glasses, wipes his face, and choke-slams the protester to the ground.
• Unusual Euphemism:
  • "Dead as Fuck"
    "And now she's going to town/with her lips on my boomstick".
  • "Synthetic Love"
    "Crawling inside of you/fruit of the flesh is bruised"
  • "Not My Type (Dead as Fuck 2)"
    "She loves me 'cause I give head like a zombie"
• Whole-Plot Reference: "Undead Ahead 2: The Tale of the Midnight Ride" is one to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

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