Motionless In White – The Underworld London – 23/01/16

It’s another cold day in Camden but there is already a queue of fans around the block eagerly anticipating tonight’s Motionless In White show. Especially as it was due to originally take place at the end of last year; the tour was originally postponed in light of the tragic events that happened in Paris. Due to the miserable British weather I am sure everyone is as relieved as me that the doors are at 6pm tonight.

First on are UK based Silent Screams, having replaced Chelsea Grin who couldn’t make the rescheduled dates. As the sold out venue starts filling up these metallers do a killer job to get the crowd warmed up. Whilst they aren’t particularly my kind of music, they do have a great stage presence especially with frontman Joey Heywood launching himself into the crowd for a song. It does offer up a good dynamic having both clean and growl vocals, which adds a bit more depth to the music. A strong performance and the crowd is left buzzing for New Years Day. (6)

It is really great to see many people also anticipating New Year’s Day, from the moment the first notes of Kill or be Killed Hit they have the crowd behind them, I couldn’t see a single person not headbanging or singing along! What I really love was seeing the transformation that goes into their stage performance, Ash Costello looks absolutely flawless and live her vocal range is equally impressive; have to say she handles the technical difficulties they faced with her mic really well, keeping cool and delivering a top performance. I was lucky enough to interview guitarist Nikki Misery before the show; the difference seeing him on stage warpaint on, playing his heart out, I don’t think I saw him stand still for even one second! One thing that was very clear to me is there is so much genuine emotion that goes into New Years Day’s music and live shows, it is very refreshing to see a band pouring their own experiences and emotion into their music, and not trying to make music to please the masses. Another highlight is Chris coming out to sing Angel Eyes, these 2 have such chemistry and vocally complement each-other perfectly. A great set and I am left feeling there is a lot to come from this band in the future, they are very much cemented into my bands to keep an eye on list! (8)

The second Motionless in White set foot on stage and the hard hitting riff of Death March kicks in the packed up venue is just a sea of fists in the air and hair. One of the things I love about Motionless is they deliver the whole package; you get more than just the music, you get an experience. Bassist Ghost takes to the stage in full Texas Chainsaw Massacre attire, and the rest of the band just as ghoulish. It’s not just the image that blows you away, live time and time again they have impressed me with their performance; Chris is one of my favourite vocalists; I think he really is one of the top vocalists out there, each album he seems to try something new vocally. Live he just blows me away his transitions from clean to scream vocals are perfect. Crowd pleaser A-M-E-R-I-C-A goes down brilliantly with the packed out crowd singing along at the top of their lungs.

Overall a great choice of set-list, featuring a good mix of their back catalogue and tracks from their most recent release Reincarnate. It shouldn’t work as well as it does but they also throw in a cover of Linkin Park classic ‘One Step Closer’ considering most the crowd is the age I was when that track came out, it goes down pretty well. Another highlight is Ash Costello joining them to sing Contempress. This is one of my favourite tracks from Reincarnate as I adore Maria Brink’s vocals and they work perfectly with Chris; I am very happy to say that Ash absolutely nails it and delivers and incredibly passionate performance of this track. This tour is ‘Beyond the Barricade’ tour, the concept is they wanted to play smaller shows to be more intimate, the Underworld is perfect for this with the 500 capacity sold out and no barrier; the atmosphere really is something special, I know this is a night we will all remember, and as Motionless finish with the last song Reincarnate the atmosphere really is something special. Overall a fantastic show start to finish. (9)

Links –

https://www.facebook.com/motionlessinwhite/

https://www.facebook.com/nydrock/

https://www.facebook.com/silentscreamsband/

All photos by Kris White – EK13 Photography