Is Chris Motionless the new Marilyn Manson?

Now that I have your attention. haha

I was cruising home from work last night with a new set of tunes on my album.  As much as I enjoy all the new music coming out, we all have those select albums we cannot get enough of.  In this circumstance, that album was Motionless In White's "Infamous" album that was released on November 13th, 2012 via Fearless Records.  Agreed by many that this is MIW's best work to date, I can completely understand that the band wanted to veer their metalcore style of music to a more diverse and well rounded effort.



"Condescension, Suffering, Callousness and Loathing
Are the badges I have earned for my cause
And I am finding hope within hatred
A reason to persist, to push past everything" ("Devil's Night" lyrics)

Previous releases of MIW have been swept to the side as the band did nothing essentially to break themselves out of a genre that is overflowing with both talent and repetitive chugs.  Not that we all didn't enjoy hit such as "Abigail" and "Immaculate Misconception", but in an ever changing music industry and the fact that we have information by the truckloads, fans and critics are looking for something that is a definite game changer.  Never lose your core sound, but at the same time you need to expand your horizons or else progression will cease to exist.

"Not since the heyday of Marilyn Manson had such a strongly image-driven band with a message beyond simple positivity in the light of hard times struck a chord with America’s youth, and in the twenty-five months since release week that following has only grown." -Under The Gun

I can attest to this claim, as I was in attendance of their SOLD OUT show in Toronto at The MOD Club.  The group had the crowd by the short hairs almost as soon as they hit the stage, with chants of "Mo-tion-less" being screamed without a moment of silence. Side thought, hands down the best venue they could have chosen for their show...the sound was immaculate and not a misconception.  All puns intended.



"Oil prices are so high we can't feed ourselves
So we buy into to fast food and occupy the will
We upload our status and beg for attention
While their all eating cake up on capitol hill" ("A-M-E-R-I-C-A" lyrics)

So how does this relate to Manson in particular?  Nothing factual or on paper I can show other than reviews and comparisons from other websites.  We got the image, the outfits, the sound and the growing fan base  The vocal range exceed that of a modern Manson of course.  I have to remind myself at the same time that Manson has been in this game for 20+ years longer than Chris Motionless has, so there is going to be some room for improvement (especially after the last few times I have seen Manson live...but that's a different rant).  But for all intensive purposes, I am looking at sophomore albums between the two...and they rival.

"Infamous lead single 'Devil’s Night' rages like Bleeding Through, while 'A-M-E-R-I-C-A' stomps like vintage Manson." -Revolver Magazine

"Sinematic" was a track that instantly caught my attention when comparing Infamous to the likes of "Antichrist Superstar".  Both exceptional albums and both really started to show the world what these artists are communicating/portraying.  The low end spoken voice of Chris reminds me of yesteryear.  Something along the lines of Mansons' "Man That You Fear".  Take a listen for yourselves.



“Infamous pays a lot more attention to real life, this time. It’s not about movie characters like a lot of Creatures was. I don’t want to make music to just exist.  I want to make music that makes a fucking difference. So this record is straight up, non-fiction and reflects how I feel about things being sung through not only my eyes, but those of fans and people in general. As much as I love not taking music entirely seriously all the time, I do feel at this point, we have an obligation to remain a band that’s doing something positive and putting out the right kind of message. You have NO idea what you are about to hear, in the best way possible.” -Chris Motionless

Now I don't expect everyone to agree with me.  Hell, I expect some of you to say "WTF are you thinking?!"  There's nothing wrong with having a difference of opinion, as long as it's backed.  Chris Motionless connects to his distraught (and sometimes confused, fearful, and/or angry) fans both lyrically and emotionally, same as Manson has done for years upon years.  He makes himself stand out amongst the crowd and doesn't care what you think about his makeup, outfits or lyrics.  Remind you of someone?

I'm sure I will have more thoughts on this that I might add over the next day or so, but for now I think I've made (somewhat of) a point.

If you don't like the album and were expecting "Creatures Part II"...then at least we can blame Tim Sköld (producer of "Infamous", former bassist for Manson, also producing, editing, creating artwork, electronics, programming drums and beats, playing guitar, keyboards, accordion and synthesizer bass for Manson's album "The Golden Age of Grotesque").  haha.