Review: Motionless in White – Decades

For a group going for 20-odd years, Decades is an obviously apt title for a new album.

Chris Cerulli — the last original member standing of Motionless in White — has spent two decades navigating line-up changes, genre snobbery and the perpetual challenge of remaining relevant in a heavy music landscape that moves faster than it used to. Decades arrives as both anniversary statement and prospectus, a record designed to survey where the band have been while insisting there’s still somewhere to go. On the evidence here, they’re right.

The title track opens with the authority of a band who have earned the right to plant a flag. A slow, deliberate build gives way to a widescreen chorus that functions as an overture — a statement of survival rather than just a song, and a strong one. “log_in//crash_out” follows with a synth-driven metalcore electro number raging against the infinite scroll that has genuine catchiness underneath its aggression, some smartly turned lyrics and a breakdown that justifies its existence. “Playing God,” featuring Corey Taylor, earns its guest slot without feeling like a box-ticking exercise, the two vocalists finding a dynamic that actually serves the song. “Afraid of the Dark,” the lead single and their first Billboard Hot Hard Rock number one, does what a lead single should: states the band’s case loudly and efficiently and makes you curious about what follows.

What follows is, admittedly, uneven in places. At twelve tracks the album occasionally stretches where tighter editing might have sharpened it, and a handful of mid-album moments lack the immediacy of the record’s stronger material. But “Blood Rave” and “Count Back From Zero” demonstrate that the band’s instinct for a pit-worthy riff remains entirely intact, and closer “Sunglasses at Night” ends proceedings on a note of gleeful, knowingly camp bravado that suits them perfectly.

As an anniversary record that genuinely tries to honour twenty years of a band without simply anthologising them, Decades deserves credit. The ambition alone puts it ahead of most.