Review Summary: Motionless In White makes a pretty impressive album, but still nothing out of the ordinary.
Motionless In White is a pretty okay band. Nothing too amazing. Nothing too terrible. They don't suck at what they do, but what they do isn't all that hard. So in all honesty, this album kinda surprised me when I first listened to it. Compared to the other sappy and outdated and emo-esque work MIW put out before "Creatures," this is actually really good.
This album seems to be a huge improvement in every department musically. Most notably, the vocals are a lot less annoying than past efforts. Vocalist Chris's range of different screams is pretty good now, but the screams weren't the problem in the past. It was definitely his nasally clean vocals, which actually sound great now. This is really evident on songs like "Abigail" and "Immaculate Misconception". He even has moments where he sounds like he's trying a Marilyn Manson inspired voice in "London In Terror" and it really works. The vocals are much more experimental and, most of all, tolerable and it makes for an easy listen.
The next big step forward I noticed would definitely be the keyboard. Rather than go for electronic and dance type beats, Keyboarder Balz went for more of an eerie feel on this album. The keyboard seems like less of a gimmick and more to set a mood for each song. I really enjoyed it, especially on the song "Scissorhands" in which it worked the best out of the all the songs. This sound definitely suits the band better than the electronic garbage thrown in for no reason.
On the other hand, this album isn't without it's faults. The few different riffs the guitarists play are pretty decent but, despite the fact that they can obviously play alright, they decided to go with the same boring "chug-chug" breakdowns on almost every song. They managed to not have them every thirty seconds (although there are a lot), but that doesn't help much since just about everyone sounds pretty similar to the last. If they're going to have as many breakdowns as they do, we definitely need more variety.
Another area that still didn't get much better is the lyrics. Some songs have better subject matter than others. For example, "Abigail" was written about the Salem witch trials, which actually made for a perfect song. Others still seem aimed at teenagers. While catchy, some of these lyrics are pretty god awful. It almost seems like these guys never grew out of the "stabby-rip-stab-stab-cutting-kill-my-girlfriend" emo phase from the early 2000's. "I hope you drown in all the cum you ***ing swallow, to get yourself to the top" "What could be more beautiful than death?" These are just short examples, but a lot of these songs follow that same "*** you, you ***ing whore, i'll kill you so you're pretty forever" bull***. These guys really need to find something else to write about if they want to be taken truly serious.
In closing, I really did like this album. It grew a little musically just not lyrically. If they stop writing teenage poetry as excuses for lyrics and come up with a different formula for breakdowns, this band really could be great.
Pros:
Way better clean vocals and screams
Dark and ominous keyboard
A few interesting subjects in the lyrics
Decent guitar riffs
Cons:
Repetitive breakdowns
Corny and awful emo lyrics
