| Motionless in White | |
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Motionless in White performing in Las Vegas in 2011. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Genres | Metalcore, gothic metal |
| Years active | 2005-present |
| Labels | Fearless, Tragic Hero, Masquerade |
| Website | www.motionlessinwhite.net |
| Members | |
| Angelo Parente Chris Cerulli Joshua Balz Ryan Sitkowski Ricky Olson Devin Sola |
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| Past members | |
| Frank Polumbo Thomas Bell Mike Costanza |
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Motionless in White is an American metalcore band from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Formed in 2005, the group is known for its dark horror-themed lyrics and physical appearances, that of which heavily correspond to gothic imagery. Motionless in White is currently signed to Fearless Records and have released two EPs and one full-length album. Their full-length, Creatures, reached position 175 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2010.
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Motionless in White was founded in 2005 by members Chris Cerulli, Angelo Parente, Frank Polumbo and Mike Costanza during high school. With a sound, at the time, being influenced by alternative rock, emo and post-hardcore bands, they incepted many other friends into the group until finally settling on what would be Motionless in White and later chose to follow a more heavy metal sound, descriptively; a metalcore musical style highly influenced by gothic and industrial metal bands and carried this sound on as their signature style after the release of their 2005 self-distributed demo.
The group played many shows on the East Coast Independent stage during Warped Tour 2006 and later the next year, recorded their first EP The Whorror and released it the same year through Masquerade Recordings.
The band derived their band name from the Eighteen Visions song, "Motionless and White".[1]
After touring in support of the The Whorror, Motionless in White had written enough songs to complete a full-length album. Their ambition to record a full-length was hobbled by the fact that they were still signed to local label, Masquerade Recordings, but did not stop at going along to complete work on the project. The album was named When Love Met Destruction.[2] When Love Met Destruction was recorded, and was expected to be released the same year, however it never reached an official release, all of its songs however, did leak online.[3] After its completion, the band toured for nearly a year with bands including August Burns Red, Asking Alexandria, and many others.
These larger tours caught the attention of larger label, Tragic Hero Records where they were signed to the label for a brief amount of time before shifting to Fearless Records before the end of 2008.[4] At this point, Motionless in White then made the decision to re-record six of the eleven tracks that were supposed to make up When Love Met Destruction, re-qualifying the release from a full album, to an EP. 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.[4] The song "Ghost in the Mirror" was made as the band's first ever single and had a music video produced for it. After releasing the EP the band went on tour for another year. To this day, the group still performs most songs from the EP at most of their shows.
After the release of When Love Met Destruction, bassist Frank Polumbo left Motionless in White because of his growing disinterest in the band's style of music. Although leaving the genre behind, he is not credited on being on bad terms with the band. With Polumbo's departure, Motionless in White added Bellevue, Washington native, Rick Olson as their new permanent bass player in October 2009.[5] Months later, Motionless in White entered the studio during May 2010 to record their debut full-length, Creatures[6] with Andrew Wade as the chosen producer. The record's first single "London in Terror" made its premier on the horror film website Fearnet, wherein the group explained its concept being based upon the infamous Whitechapel murders.[7]
Creatures was released on October 12, 2010 through Fearless, and claimed the 175th slot on the Billboard Top 200 charts,[8] and #6 on the Heatseekers chart, both of which were made in the first week of sales. Frontman, Cerulli stated that "this album is for anyone who has ever gotten problems with the way they look, dress, or what they listen to and that is what this album is about." The band requested for their listeners to write the lyrics for the title track of the album, all of the lyrics included on the song (besides the chorus) are fan-submitted lines.[9] In early 2010, the band toured with Drop Dead Gorgeous, Sky Eats Airplane, played four dates on the 2010 Vans Warped Tour and then went on to play the Thrash and Burn tour with Asking Alexandria and Born of Osiris during the summer. Motionless in White carried on a tour with Black Veil Brides during October of that year, and then co-headlined a tour with A Skylit Drive in November. The group then returned to their hometown for an album release show and played the East Coast leg of Warped Tour 2011.[10]
On Wednesday May 4, 2011, rhythm guitarist, Thomas Joseph "TJ" Bell parted ways with the band.[11] 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, but instead decided to arrive in Los Angeles to deal with his ongoing financial issues. 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.[12][13] Motionless in White stated "If our live performance didn’t HEAVILY depend on having 2 guitarists then it wouldn’t have been a huge deal to us.. but unfortunately having 1 guitar player in a band like ours causes your show to suffer greatly. We agreed to let TJ go" along with an explanation about how they experienced many disagreements with Bell throughout the years of being a band.[13]
After Bell's departure, Olson then switched his position in the band from playing bass to rhythm guitar, which then left the group in-audition, once again, for a new bass player. During June, Motionless in White announced a short film in the works for the title track of Creatures.[14] The band released three trailers leading up to its release on July 7 where it premiered at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST).[15] It was directed by Stephen Penta and features an "intense nature" as described by the band, being inspired by the visual nature of early videos by acts such as Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. The band held a broadcast live session for fans over Ustream leading up to the hours before its worldwide premiere.[16]
In the tours Motionless in White performed in after Olson's switch to rhythm guitar, a man with an unknown name began playing bass, finally confirmed as being Devin Sola, a substitute bassist. The video for "Puppets" was recorded live during the band's performance in Las Vegas on August 21, 2011, the same day that guitarist, Ryan Sitkowski was married on. The video for "Immaculate Misconception" was released on November 11, 2011 (11/11/11).[17] Dee Snider of Twisted Sister guest starred in its filming.[18] Snider's son, Cody directed the video.[17]
Sola was officially confirmed as the band's new bassist on November 27, 2011.[19]
Motionless in White's renown musical style is primarily modern metalcore, with drawn-in influence from gothic and industrial metal genres.[20][21] The band has even been dubbed as "gothic metalcore"[22] and "horror-metal" by Fearnet.[14] Being influenced from a wide variety of artists such as Marilyn Manson, Misfits, Bleeding Through, Cradle of Filth, Himsa, The Black Dahlia Murder and Eighteen Visions, the group's song structure commonly features intricate riffs coupled with 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.[23]
Lyrically, Motionless in White songs may take on concepts such as horror, heartache, insanity, or surreal fiction.
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