Motionless in White
Encyclopedia
Motionless in White is an American metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...

 band from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...

. Formed in 2005, the group is known for its dark horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

-themed lyrics and physical appearances, that of which heavily correspond to gothic imagery
Gothic fashion
Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical Gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, black lips and black clothes. Both male and female goths wear dark eyeliner and dark fingernails. Styles are...

. Motionless in White is currently signed to Fearless Records and have released two EPs and one full-length album
Motionless in White discography
Motionless in White is a Pennsylvania-based metalcore band. The discography of the group consists of one full-length album, two EPs and one demo album. The group is known to combine the metalcore musical style with goth influences with their material having a heavier shift with each release...

. Their full-length, Creatures
Creatures (Motionless in White album)
Creatures is the debut album by American metal band Motionless in White, released on October 12, 2010 through Fearless Records. The album spawned three singles, "Abigail", "Immaculate Misconception", and the title track, all three of which had accompanied music videos as well...

, reached position 175 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in 2010.

Formation and The Whorror (2005–2007)

Motionless in White was founded in 2005 by members Chris Cerulli and Angelo Parente during high school. With a sound, at the time, being influenced by alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

, emo
Emo
Emo is a style of rock music and its associated subcultureEmo may also refer to:- Businesses :* Emo , an Irish oil company and filling station chain* Emo Speedway, a racetrack in Emo, Ontario...

 and post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...

 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
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...

 musical style highly influenced by gothic
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...

 and industrial metal
Industrial metal
Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...

 bands and carried this sound on as their signature style after the release of their 2005 self-distributed demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

.

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
The Whorror
The Whorror is the first EP by American gothic metalcore band, Motionless in White. It was released October 23, 2007...

and released it the same year through Masquerade Recordings.

The band derived their band name from the Eighteen Visions
Eighteen Visions
Eighteen Visions was an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, United States. Formed in October of 1995, the group was one of the first practitioners involved in the metalcore genre...

 song, "Motionless and White
Motionless and White
"Motionless and White" is a song by Eighteen Visions, and was the final single from The Best of Eighteen Visions. "Motionless and White" became a popular underground hit in parts of the UK and Western Australia, but undoubtedly the most successful in California, it ended up peaking #98 on the US...

".

When Love Met Destruction (2008–2009)

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
When Love Met Destruction
-Personnel:Motionless in White* Angelo Parente - drums* Chris Cerulli - lead vocals, additional guitar* Joshua Balz - keyboards, synthesizer* TJ Bell - guitar, backing vocals* Frank Polumbo - bass guitar...

. 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. After its completion, the band toured for nearly a year with bands including August Burns Red
August Burns Red
August Burns Red is an American metal band, from Manheim, Pennsylvania. Formed in 2003, the group began their first performances while a majority of the members were attending their senior year of high school, and soon began playing shows around Lancaster, before being signed to CI Records, and...

, Asking Alexandria
Asking Alexandria
Asking Alexandria are a British metalcore band from York, North Yorkshire. Founded in 2008 when Ben Bruce contacted his old companions upon returning to the UK after residing in Dubai...

, and many others.

These larger tours caught the attention of larger label, Tragic Hero Records
Tragic Hero Records
Tragic Hero Records is a record label founded in Raleigh, North Carolina in March 2005 to represent the growing hardcore punk and harder wave of music in North Carolina. The label was founded by Tommy Lacombe, David Varnedoe and Jason Ganthner. Alesana was the first band the label signed...

 where they were signed to the label for a brief amount of time before shifting to Fearless Records
Fearless Records
Fearless Records is an alternative rock-oriented record label that has been signing artists since 1994. Fearless is based in Westminster, California and are best known for their early pop-punk moments captured in the Fearless Flush Sampler and Punk Bites releases, as well as additional releases by...

 before the end of 2008. 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
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

. 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
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 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.

Departure of Polumbo and Creatures (2009–2010)

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
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...

 native, Rick 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
Creatures (Motionless in White album)
Creatures is the debut album by American metal band Motionless in White, released on October 12, 2010 through Fearless Records. The album spawned three singles, "Abigail", "Immaculate Misconception", and the title track, all three of which had accompanied music videos as well...

with Andrew Wade as the chosen producer. The record's first single "London in Terror" made its premier on the horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 website Fearnet
FEARnet
Fearnet is a cable channel, website and Video on Demand television service owned by Horror Entertainment LLC, a joint venture between Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment...

, wherein the group explained its concept being based upon the infamous Whitechapel murders.

Creatures was released on October 12, 2010 through Fearless, and claimed the 175th slot on the Billboard Top 200 charts, 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
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

) are fan-submitted lines. In early 2010, the band toured with Drop Dead Gorgeous
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Drop Dead Gorgeous is a 1999 American dark comedy film directed by Michael Patrick Jann and starring Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy and Kirsten Dunst...

, Sky Eats Airplane
Sky Eats Airplane
Sky Eats Airplane was an American electronic post-hardcore band, formed in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2005. The band was signed to indie label Equal Vision Records and most recently released their self-titled full-length album through the label in July 2008....

, 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
Born of Osiris
Born of Osiris is an American progressive death metal band from Palatine, Illinois. Formed in 2003, the group has undergone a number of name changes including Your Heart Engraved, DiminisheD, and Rosecrance before finally settling with Born of Osiris in 2007, basing the name off the Egyptian deity...

 during the summer. Motionless in White carried on a tour with Black Veil Brides
Black Veil Brides
Black Veil Brides is an American rock band based out of Hollywood, California. The group is composed of Andrew Biersack , Ashley Purdy , Jake Pitts , Jinxx , and Christian "CC" Coma...

 during October of that year, and then co-headlined a tour with A Skylit Drive
A Skylit Drive
A Skylit Drive is an American post-hardcore band from Lodi, California. The band released one DVD, one EP and three studio albums: Wires...and the Concept of Breathing on May 20, 2008, Adelphia on June 9, 2009, and most recently Identity On Fire on February 15, 2011. Michael Jagmin has provided...

 in November. The group then returned to their hometown for an album release show and played the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...

 leg of Warped Tour 2011
Warped Tour 2011
Warped Tour 2011 is the 17th annual Summer Warped Tour festival. Vans Shoes is again the tour's primary sponsor. The tour dates were announced on November 22, 2010, with the first official band announcement on December 8...

.

Departure of Bell and new music video premieres (2010–present)

On Wednesday May 4, 2011, rhythm guitarist, Thomas Joseph "TJ" Bell parted ways with the band. Reasons for the matter explained from Bell's perspective were that while he was handling bass substitution duties for Escape the Fate
Escape the Fate
Escape the Fate is an American post-hardcore band from Las Vegas, Nevada formed in 2005 and originally from Pahrump, Nevada. They have released three EPs and three full-length studio albums. Dying Is Your Latest Fashion was the band's debut album and only album to feature vocalist Ronnie Radke...

, 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. 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.

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. The band released three trailers leading up to its release on July 7 where it premiered at 7 p.m. PST
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...

 (10 p.m. EST
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

). 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
Marilyn Manson (band)
Marilyn Manson is an American metal band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Formed in 1989 by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky, the group was originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids with their uniquely theatrical performances gathering a local cult following in the early '90s. This attention...

 and Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...

. The band held a broadcast live session for fans over Ustream
Ustream
Ustream is a website which consists of a network of diverse channels providing a platform for lifecasting and live video streaming of events online. Established in March 2007, the site has over 2,000,000 registered users who generate 1,500,000+ hours of live streamed content per month with over ten...

 leading up to the hours before its worldwide premiere.

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. Sola was included in the "Creatures" video, and will also be included in the upcoming "Puppets (The First Snow)" video. The video for "Puppets" was recorded live during the band's performance in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 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). Dee Snider
Dee Snider
Daniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer-songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality, and actor. Snider is most famous for his role as the frontman of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister...

 of Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands...

 guest starred in its filming. Snider's son, Cody directed the video.

Sola was officially confirmed as the band's new bassist on November 27, 2011.

Musical style, influence and lyrics

Motionless in White's renown musical style is primarily modern metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...

, with drawn-in influence from gothic
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...

 and industrial metal
Industrial metal
Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...

 genres. The band has even been dubbed as "gothic metalcore" and "horror-metal" by Fearnet
FEARnet
Fearnet is a cable channel, website and Video on Demand television service owned by Horror Entertainment LLC, a joint venture between Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment...

. Being influenced from a wide variety of artists such as Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson (band)
Marilyn Manson is an American metal band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Formed in 1989 by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky, the group was originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids with their uniquely theatrical performances gathering a local cult following in the early '90s. This attention...

, Misfits, Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through is an American metalcore band from Orange County, California. Formed in 1999, the band blends influences stemming from modern hardcore punk, symphonic black metal, and melodic death metal...

, Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...

, Himsa, The Black Dahlia Murder and Eighteen Visions
Eighteen Visions
Eighteen Visions was an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, United States. Formed in October of 1995, the group was one of the first practitioners involved in the metalcore genre...

, the group's song structure commonly features intricate riffs coupled with blast beat
Blast beat
A blast beat is a drum beat often associated with extreme metal and grindcore, although its usage predates the genres, and is utilised by many different styles of metal...

s during verses and breakdowns
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....

 present in songs. The band's keyboard effects
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 are also noted, having been claimed to add a "dark and uneasy atmosphere" to the group's music.

Lyrically, Motionless in White songs may take on concepts such as horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

, heartache
Broken heart
A broken heart is a common metaphor used to describe the intense emotional pain or suffering one feels after losing a loved one, whether through death, divorce, breakup, physical separation or romantic rejection....

, insanity
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...

, or surreal fiction
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

.

Band members

Current members
  • Joshua Balz - keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

     (since 2005)
  • Christopher "Chris Motionless" Cerulli - lead vocals
    Lead vocalist
    The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...

     (since 2005)
  • Angelo Parente - drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

     (since 2005)
  • Ryan Sitkowski - lead guitar
    Lead guitar
    Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

     (since 2008)
  • Richard "Ricky Horror" Olson - rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

     (since 2011), bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

     (2009–2011), backing vocals
    Backing vocalist
    A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

  • Devin "Ghost" Sola - bass guitar (since 2011)

Former members
  • Thomas "TJ" Bell - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2005–2011)
  • Frank Polumbo - bass guitar (2005–2009)
  • Mike Costanza - lead guitar (2005–2008)

Discography

Studio albums
  • Creatures
    Creatures (Motionless in White album)
    Creatures is the debut album by American metal band Motionless in White, released on October 12, 2010 through Fearless Records. The album spawned three singles, "Abigail", "Immaculate Misconception", and the title track, all three of which had accompanied music videos as well...

    (2010, Fearless
    Fearless Records
    Fearless Records is an alternative rock-oriented record label that has been signing artists since 1994. Fearless is based in Westminster, California and are best known for their early pop-punk moments captured in the Fearless Flush Sampler and Punk Bites releases, as well as additional releases by...

    )


EPs
  • The Whorror
    The Whorror
    The Whorror is the first EP by American gothic metalcore band, Motionless in White. It was released October 23, 2007...

    (2007, Masquerade)
  • When Love Met Destruction
    When Love Met Destruction
    -Personnel:Motionless in White* Angelo Parente - drums* Chris Cerulli - lead vocals, additional guitar* Joshua Balz - keyboards, synthesizer* TJ Bell - guitar, backing vocals* Frank Polumbo - bass guitar...

    (2009, Tragic Hero
    Tragic Hero Records
    Tragic Hero Records is a record label founded in Raleigh, North Carolina in March 2005 to represent the growing hardcore punk and harder wave of music in North Carolina. The label was founded by Tommy Lacombe, David Varnedoe and Jason Ganthner. Alesana was the first band the label signed...

    )

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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