The Reincarnation of Motionless In White

The Alexandria Hotel is rumored to be one of the most haunted buildings in Los Angeles. Known for its many murders, constant ghost sightings and mysterious abandoned wing, it is thought to be a ghoul goldmine. With its haunted Valentino Suite and ballroom, The Alexandria proved to be the perfect place for industrial metalcore group Motionless In White to set the stage for their third studio record, Reincarnate.

Motionless In White has been a heavy force trekking through the midstream music scene for the last couple of years. Singled out for their don’t-give-a-fuck attitude and dark, post-goth-rock aestheticthe band was able to visually amp up the horror by filming the first video for their title track in the famous Alexandria Hotel. “Like many hotels it’s rumored to be haunted,” explains frontman Chris Motionless, “but there’s a specific room [The Valentino Suite] in the hotel that I really wanted to work our album photos and video around. We didn’t encounter any creepy ghost experiences, but when you walk into that red room that we did our video in, you instantly feel like people have been murdered there. It’s very, very heavy.”

Motionless cites artists like Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson among the many influences when developing the horror-film worthy sound of Reincarnate. “We’ve always been very heavily into the industrial metal scene,” explains Motionless. “With this record we could really go into that world as much as we’ve wanted to all along. We’re going to whole on embrace that side of our band and just run with that, regardless of if the Warped Tour fans are going to like it or not. We just wanted to do what we really wanted to do, and that’s definitely the main approach.”

Though Motionless In White accepts that not everyone may like their latest musical direction, they still want to show their utmost support and appreciation to their followers. “We’ve always been a band that’s tried to provide fans with a little extra,” says Motionless. “You can go to the store and buy the record and that’s cool, but why not give a little more and add to the interest levels of the record?” The band had 11 miniature coffins representing 11 songs hidden in some of the eeriest places around the world, including LA’s Museum of Death and Salem, Mass. Every half hour the band provided hints as to where each coffin was located, thus creating a collaborative international scavenger hunt. If a fan found a coffin it would simultaneously unlock one Reincarnate track online for the rest of the world to hear. “You had this sense of other fans across the world just rooting for the ones that were searching for each box,” continues Motionless. “That was really cool and just an interesting way of releasing a record.”

Reincarnate has this cool ability to distort the senses, constantly turning that chilling feeling of unease when hair stands on the back of one’s neck into distinct riffs and vocals. After a rather shaky run with the group’s second album, Infamous, it seems as if Motionless, can finally breathe easily with the latest success his band’s new, more developed sound–Reincarnate debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Top 200. “It’s definitely my favorite [record] that we’ve done,” says Motionless. “The feedback has been really good towards it considering how our last record went. The last record was a serious nightmare to record and write. We were really concerned with making sure that all the mistakes that we made in the past were remedied on this record.”

This macabre aura doesn’t just stop with the band, but travels with Motionless wherever he goes via his multitude of cool and creepy tattoos. “Right now the only piece that I’m working on is my chest and torso,” says Motionless of the latest tattoo his close friend Megan Massacre is working on. “I’ve been waiting to get a mega big piece from her for as long as I’ve been getting tattooed. It’s this big house on a haunted hill with all kinds of pumpkins, creepy trees, fall stuff and shit like that. It’s just a cool thing for us to do since we have a shared interested in that kind of stuff.”

Though Motionless may be covered from head to toe in ink, none of it happens to be a Motionless In White tattoo. “I’ve wanted to get one,” he explains, “but I just feel like if I got one now it would kind of be like a kiss of death. Maybe something would go wrong and that [tattoo] would be sealing a doomed fate. I don’t want to risk anything like that, so I’ll just wait until it’s over with and then get one to commemorate the experience.”

Superstitions aside, Motionless In White can sit back confidently with their latest release as it continues to ride a train of success. Though the band didn’t have any run-ins with ghosts or spirits during the album’s making, the alluring and horror-filled tracks of Reincarnate are sure to keep up the haunts.

Make sure to check out Motionless In White’s video for “Reincarnate” right here: