Motionless In White – ‘Scoring The End of the World’ [Album Review]

Anyone who saw Scanton, PA cyber/horror metallers Motionless In White performing their “Deadstream” in the grounds of an asylum last year will be well aware that this band are capable of being suitably epic when they let their creative minds run riot. Unsurprisingly then, their long-awaited new studio album, Scoring The End of the World, sees them addressing the end of the world with a dramatic, cinematic powerhouse of a record.

Providing the soundtrack to the collapse of humanity as we know it, the opening two tracks see modern metalcore jostling with pulsing cyber beats and ominous samples echoing how “we’re all going to fucking die” with the whole thing wrapped up in the slickest pop melodies you’re ever likely to hear on a metal record. Time and time again throughout Scoring The End of the World, Motionless In White effortlessly meld the brutally heavy and the beautifully pop. Swerving through the electro/synth-pop drenched “Werewolf” the band storm through the brutal “Slaughterhouse,” the first of three collaborations on this album which sees them team up with Knocked Loose frontman Bryan Garris.

The haunting “Masterpiece” breaks up the thunderous pace of the album and, given it follows a similar musical direction, is set to be as big a hit as “Another Life” with MIW’s passionate fanbase. “Cause of Death,” on the other hand, is another full-throttle modern-metal face-pummeller peppered with those polished melodies the band excels at whereas “We Become The Night” is packed with bounce with frontman Chris Motionless utilizing a cleaner vocal style. Towards the end of the album and the creepy-as-fuck intro and samples throughout “Broadcasting From Beyond The Grave: Corpse Nation” takes us right back to why MIW performing at a haunted asylum couldn’t have been a more perfect match up.

The pulsing futuristic stomp of “Cyberhex” has been described by the frontman as his “love letter to you, our fans, for everything you have done for me over the course of some of the most mentally taxing few years I’ve had to go through.” and only promises to strengthen the love affair between the band and their fans. The album hurtles towards the dramatic title track finale, but not before Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo jumps on for “Red, White & Boom” and, as a taster for when the pair tour together in 2023, it just makes you hope that humanity will survive until then. If not, and we’re all heading to extinction, this cinematic soundtrack will make the end all that more epic.

Scoring The End of the World Track Listing:

1. Meltdown
2. Sign Of Life
3. Werewolf
4. Porcelain
5. Slaughterhouse (Feat: Bryan Garris)
6. Masterpiece
7. Cause Of Death
8. We Become The Night
9. Burned At Both Ends 2
10. Broadcasting From Beyond The Grave: Corpse Nation
11. Cyberhex
12. Red, White & Boom (Feat: Caleb Shomo)
13. Scoring The End Of The World (Feat: Mick Gordon)

Run Time: 52:50
Release Date: June 10, 2022
Record Label: Roadrunner Records