Music Review: Motionless in White Release R.I.P. with Skylar Grey

On Wednesday, June 17th, Motionless In White released the third single from their upcoming album, Decades, set for release on July 17th. The track, featuring Skylar Grey, is cinematic, painting a dark picture of uncertainty in love. 

The song opens with a haunting piano as if it were a bell signalling distress. Grey, an independent artist who gained widespread recognition for her work with Eminem and Dr. Dre on “I Need A Doctor”, opens with a haunting, breathy chorus before Chris Motionless delivers a somber first verse loaded with emotion:

“What’s meant to be or meant to break is yet to be decided

A requiem to seal our fate has yet to be recited

Was all this suffering just a waste if

Emptiness fills the spaces”

Grey’s vocals both complement and contrast Motionless’s. Whereas Grey’s are light and breathy, Chris’s are raw and vulnerable, his trademark grit conveying emotion and pain without being overbearing. The harmonies and layering of vocals give the song a larger than life feel that will cut straight to the heart of Motionless In White fans, who are already crowning “R.I.P.” as the sequel to “Eternally Yours” (Graveyard Shift - 2017).

The band leans into their pop influences with electronic percussion for the first verse before giving way to the full band for the second chorus. What is striking is the effective use of silence, whether it’s dropping the instrumentation for “spaces” in the first verse or leaving “peace” off at the end of the song, it allows the lyrics and music to breathe, giving the listener a chance to catch their own breath and process their emotions.

Highlighting the gothic romance is the music video featuring Chris and his real world partner, Lex. Throughout the videos released so far for the new album, callbacks to previous eras of Motionless have been implemented. “R.I.P.” is bathed in black and red and Chris has grown his hair out, both of which could be tied to the band’s Reincarnate era. Given that the yet to be released new album is titled Decades, the connections make sense.

Motionless is currently in Australia to play a handful of shows before returning to the States for “The Sweat and Blood Tour”. You can find tickets here: https://www.motionlessinwhite.net/tour 

You can listen to “R.I.P.” on all major streaming services.

You can watch the music video here: Motionless in White - R.I.P. (feat. Skylar Grey) [Official Video]