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April 9, 2025

Next MOTIONLESS IN WHITE Album Will Be A ‘Spectrum Of Heavy To Light And Everywhere In Between’

In a new interview with Primordial Radio, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band’s 2022 album “Scoring The End Of The World”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  ”We’ve been working on it all last year. We did the U.S. headlining version of [the ‘Touring The End Of The World’] tour in the fall of ’23. And that ended and I kind of just went right into working on the record and worked on it last year and going into this year. I’m taking my time. We’re taking our time with it.”I don’t want to feel like for any reason I felt like I had to push the record out, and I have felt like that,” he explained. “I’ve talked about it a few times where there’s that immense pressure to get more stuff out more consistently to fans or they’re gonna kind of leave you behind and forget about you. But I think I’ve since kind of just moved on from that and feel the most secure in that, just take your time and do the record that you wanna do, and at the end of the day, you’ll at least be happy with it no matter what happens. And that’s where I’m at. So we’re gonna go back in after this tour and work for a couple months and see what happens. And when it’s out, it’s out. But it is definitely being worked on. I would say the bulk of it is good to go, and I’m very excited about it.”Regarding the musical direction of the new MOTIONLESS IN WHITE material, Chris said: “The last like three or four records, I feel, have all done a good job of dividing the time between the heavy, the emotional, the kind of artsy experimental tracks. We really just try to keep it from being boring and have the record tell a story through these different soundscapes and different atmospheres of heavy to not so heavy and everywhere in between. And I would say that’s just where we’re locked in at. There’s no desire within us to do an album that’s just all singing and abandon the screaming and some of the heavy stuff, because we need the heavy stuff. That’s in us that has to be written to feel like MOTIONLESS IN WHITE. But in the same token, we have to get the songs that feel like the more emotionally vulnerable songs, because that’s also what we need to do. And we just write what we feel, and that’s kind of just that spectrum of heavy to light and everywhere in between. I guess it’s pretty simple. So I would say it’ll be the same as the other records where it’s just a good mixture of it all.”Two months ago, Chris told James Wilson-Taylor of Rock Sound about a possible timeline for the new MOTIONLESS IN WHITE album: “It’s still a slow process. I don’t have any expected release date. It’s truly just we’re going to work on it until we feel like we’re happy with it. And it’s that simple and that plain and black and white. And you’ll get it when you get it. That’s the narrative I’m sticking to, and that’s what’s best for everybody.”Chris went on to say that it takes time for him and his bandmates to create something that they can fully stand behind.”I do feel like I’m seeing an interesting shift now where it felt like back then bands were putting out records every four years,” he said. “It’s just dependent. I feel like some albums were just back to back to back, and the bands were just on fire. And I think I loved that — not so much because I was impatient and couldn’t wait for new music from these bands I love, but simply just because when this band is awesome and then they give you immediately more amazing material, you’re just so energized by that. And I liked that, but I also never minded — it never bothered me that I waited three years for another album from a band, as long as it was cool. And now I feel like because of the attention span, because of the oversaturation of content and music, there’s so many bands now that fans can migrate to and sort of move on from you if you’re not satisfying the need for new stuff, bands are kind of forced to put stuff out in a hurry. But I have noticed that a lot of the bands that have kind of achieved a status that I feel like, I guess, grants them the ability to wait longer and fans aren’t gonna go anywhere, they’re taking it. And then, as a result, the albums are better because they spent the time on it. It’s, like, what do you want? Do you want something that’s half of what it could have been quicker or do you want the full realization of what the band wanted for the record in three years or four years? And then you get that. And I think every single fan is gonna have a different answer, and there’s no right or wrong. You just can’t answer it. And, again, you have to default back to what is best for the band itself and your mental state while making it.”Chris added: “There’s no other way to say that other than there’s so much more to have to consider and craft and build in addition to the music. And those are types of things that I feel like are expectations of the fans of bands like that. And that’s a personal expectation. So all that lines up and you wanna make sure that you’re putting out this complete package that is just bulletproof on the look, the sound, the imagery — every component of what makes that album cycle what it is. So, yeah, we’re still in the process of that, and it will get done. [We’re] just gonna figure it out.”With over one billion cumulative streams and views to date, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE has notched four consecutive Top 5 debuts on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart and Top Rock Albums chart with “Reincarnate” (2014),”Graveyard Shift” (2017),”Disguise” (2019) and their latest effort, “Scoring The End Of The World” (2022),the latter debuting at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, marking the band’s second biggest sales week ever. “Scoring The End Of The World” is highlighted by the singles “Masterpiece” which reached No. 1 at Active Rock radio, becoming the band’s first chart-topper at the format, and “Werewolf”, which reached Top 10 at Active Rock radio and an impressive one million music video views in just four days after its debut.In September 2023, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE released “Scoring The End Of The World (Deluxe Edition)”, a special deluxe reissue of “Scoring The End Of The World”, which saw the Cerulli-fronted outfit expanding on its acclaimed 2022 album with new four new bonus tracks, including “Hollow Points”, “Fool’s Gold”, “Timebomb” (STEOTW Mix)” and “Porcelain: Ricky Motion Picture Collection”.”Scoring The End Of The World (Deluxe Edition)” is available in multiple formats and on vinyl for the first time ever in several different color variants, including black, orange, hellfire, scorched earth, and electric purple, the latter of which comes with exclusive alternate cover artwork.MOTIONLESS IN WHITE is Chris Motionless (vocals),Ricky Olson (guitar),Ryan Sitkowski (guitar),Vinny Mauro (drums) and Justin Morrow (bass).[embedded content]