Review Summary: Motionless In White has definitely matured with their third full-length album, but seemed to do so in a direction that's sure to frustrate their old fans.
Love them or hate them, Motionless In White has quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the metalcore scene. With the release of their third full length album, they've proved that they have no interest in duplicating their previous work.
I think anyone would agree that Chris's cleans have vastly improved. You can hear the autotune more places than others, but even listening to him sing live you'd hear obvious improvement from years past. With his newfound confidence, you hear him trying so many different things with his voice. You could call it "mimicking." It's up to you to decide whether it bothers you or not.
Death March is the first track the band has put out where he uses Marilyn Manson-esque vocals throughout the entire song. In
Unstoppable he sounds indisputably like Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch, and his cleans in the title track,
Reincarnate can be easily compared to Benjamin Burnley from Breaking Benjamin. Chris also makes use of the gang-style screams you hear in bands like Vampires Everywhere! You could argue that he's losing sight of his own sound because of all these changes, but I welcome the variety and talent it takes to pull off all these styles.
Let's talk about the guest vocals. Dani Filth's addition to
Puppets 3 easily makes it one of the most memorable songs on the album. Fans of Cradle of Filth might cringe to hear he's lending his talents to a metalcore record, but strictly judging Motionless In White, the song is made so much better with him in it. As a huge Maria Brink fan, I'm sad to say
Contemptress just doesn't work. The song sounds like one of the better songs in Blood On The Dance Floor's discography, and that's not saying much. Autotune everywhere kills the song, and while Brink's vocals add an extra dynamic to the track, it wasn't enough to save the song. With the Industrial style of
Final Dictvm you won't even notice Tim Skold.
There's a reason why I spent so much time on vocals. Like most any album in the genre,
Reincarnate is primarily vocal-centered. Without Chris, the band would be nothing but forgettable borrowed riffs and breakdowns. With that being said, the riffs here are catchier than their previous albums and the breakdowns aren't as overused as your typical metalcore band. Sadly, the bass is inaudible as always.
If you're looking for consistency, you've come to the wrong place. With tracks like opener
Death March and
The Final Dictvm, you've got an industrial Motionless. You've got songs obviously written for the radio like
Reincarnate and
Dark Passenger. For the old school fans of
Creatures you might listen to album closer
Carry The Torch and
Puppets 3. They've even got
Generation Lost if nu metal isn't completely lost on you yet. And the one mandatory slower song
Wasp of course.
Lyrically, Chris has gotten away from using f*** after every sentence. The lyrics are nothing to write home about, but if you look at
Puppets 3, you can see a slight continuity between the previous two parts. It's not by chance that he reused lyrics between the three songs.
With that being said,
Reincarnate is a step up in production and is easily the most approachable record Motionless In White has put out yet. For those who liked
Creatures it's doubtful you'll see a return to form anytime soon, but for new fans this is the first album I would recommend listening to.
