Believe it or not, before I was a nervous, angsty 20-something-year-old, I was a nervous, angsty teenager. I went to school, then back home, then school, then home again. I didn’t talk to people, and I didn’t know how. I convinced myself I didn’t even want to, anyways.

Music was an escape, as it is for many. I discovered a lot of genres and bands that spoke to different struggles I was experiencing.

One of the silliest, most darling and dear to my heart bands to fall into that category was Pennsylvanian metalcore shock-rockers Motionless In White. I danced in my bedroom to their dancey, industrial-inspired bangers, and I stared out the window like a movie character brooding over their lyrics of rebellion. I scribbled their lyrics in my notebooks, and I wore an ugly shirt bearing their logo that I got at Hot Topic.

I discovered the band’s back catalog, starting with the 2010 debut Creatures, in about 2017, shortly after they released their fourth album. It wasn’t until two years later that I, now thoroughly studied up on everything MIW, finally got to have what I call a “fanmaker” album – the first album of which I was tuned in for the release cycle, making me a fan for life.

That album was 2019’s Disguise, the band’s most evident foray into nu metal and alternative metal after shifting away from the industrial metalcore sound of their past. I got to know the album like the back of my hand, despite its ugly cover. Seriously, someone get these guys a better design team.

I propose a TRACK-BY-TRACK THROWBACK: Come with me on a trip down memory lane to break down this pivotal record, one song at a time.

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We open with the title track of the record, “Disguise,” which was also the first single to be released off the album. This song opens with an eerily quiet intro before giving way to the explosive guitar riff. Right off the bat with this song, the alternative metal influences are obvious, with grooving, aggressive guitar and frontman Chris Motionless’s anguished shouts. The song also features a powerful, climbing bridge reminiscent of something straight out of the early 2000’s. True to the album’s title, the lyrics speak of letting go of a false persona that had grown overwhelming, a theme that will be seen on many other songs on the record. This title track features nearly all of the band’s core elements, blending the gothic, ghoulish aesthetic with some bounce that’s sure to get a pit going, as well as providing excellent insight as to what to expect for the rest of the album.

Track 2 is called “Headache,” which is probably my favourite non-single track of the record. With “Headache,” the Korn influences are extremely prominent, with a high, distorted, droning guitar that floats its way through the verses and a chorus accentuated by growls that would make Jonathan Davis proud.

Speaking of clear influences, “</c0de>,” track number 3, takes inspiration from Linkin Park with electronica influences running amok throughout the instrumentation. As much as I love me some LP, the verse is really the only part of this song that grabs my attention, with a lackluster chorus and a bridge that’s too short ruining some of the fun.

“Thoughts and Prayers” brings us right back into the good stuff. It’s fast, it’s heavy, it’s angry. This song, in keeping with storied Motionless tradition, tackles the topic of corruption within organized religion, a subject they may have mentioned once or twice… or a dozen times. I like when they go for this angle; it gives the band a sense of weight and purpose they often lack on their sillier songs. I’d definitely recommend this track to the Slipknot fans, because the verse always reminds me of a self-titled era track from the Knot. Overall, “Thoughts and Prayers” serves very well to remind us that this band hasn’t lost any of their heavy-hitting fiery selves.

Next track is track number five, entitled “Legacy,” which takes it down a notch to ask the question, “What will your legacy be?” It has good moments, where Chris pensively sings through questions about identity while the rest of the band builds tension with rising instrumentation. However, the song as a whole feels underwhelming. It whines on for a bit, but ultimately doesn’t feel too terribly rewarding. “Legacy” is to Disguise what “LOUD” was to the preceding Graveyard Shift – an unfortunate hiccup that kills a lot of the momentum the band builds up for itself.

Next up is “Undead Ahead 2: The Tale of the Midnight Ride,” the album’s third single. Motionless In White has a history of making sequel versions of previous songs, as a follow-up but also usually kind of a remake of the original. They’ve been doing this since early in their career, and they really owned it here, with enough original material here for it to feel like a worthwhile addition rather than reheated leftovers. “Undead Ahead” is a cut off of the band’s debut full-length Creatures, with lyrics based off of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The sequel follows this same theme, hence the tagline: “Tale of the Midnight Ride”. This is a track I have mixed feelings about. Because of its predecessor, “Undead Ahead 2” was a callback to Creatures-era Motionless, with their more traditional metalcore sound and those nasty high screams that I missed so much. As a huge fan of that album, I was delighted when I first heard this track, and the pre-breakdown callout “This place is haunted!” gives me chills every time, not to mention what a treat it was to hear Ricky singing during the bridge.

Even so, knowing that MIW would go on to release a separate Creatures tribute single (“Creatures X: To The Grave” – boy, these guys love subtitles) takes some of the wind out of the “Undead Ahead 2” sails. The band changed so much in the years between the two albums, it feels a little stale to layer the nostalgic tributes over the course of the latter album’s cycle.

We continue to “Holding On To Smoke,” a Breaking Benjamin-esque hard rock track, so much so that when I first heard the breakdown, I recognized it immediately as being the same rhythm as the chorus of “Hopeless” from BB’s Dear Agony (another school bus classic for me!). This song has a sense of desperation throughout. The lyrics describe feeling lost, feeling like the version of yourself that you once loved is now gone forever. It’s a particularly emotional piece, with a contrast of heaviness and tension to emphasize the feeling in it.

I’m an unabashed Breaking Benjamin lover, so I’ve no hesitation in jamming to this track. I love Chris Motionless’ characteristic oversinging on the bridge, I love the giant, stupid chorus, and I love the thought that post-grunge isn’t dead. Keeping it simple is the way to go sometimes, and Motionless frequently demonstrates an appreciated understanding of that fact.

From track 7, we move into “Another Life,” which is another one of Motionless’s love-hate type songs, in the vein of “Contemptress,” possibly my favorite track from their third album Reincarnate. This one, however, seems a little less on the side of the typical metalcore “you broke my heart, you’re a monster, but I still love you” and more like a slightly more mature story of realizing one’s fault in a relationship that ended.

To be blunt, it’s also boring. Unfortunately, I think MIW had figured out by this time that each album needed a big overwrought ballad to be the smash hit single (as “Masterpiece” from the following album would successfully follow to be). I’m not one for hair ballads and this is essentially the same deal with some scarier makeup.

Next is track 9, “Broadcasting from Beyond the Grave: Death Inc.,” another subtitle crime that is somewhat justified by this track receiving a later sequel on 2022’s Scoring The End Of The World. This song is a high-speed jam that employs some of those industrial elements that MIW had largely dropped by this point. This track aims to be an anthem for the eccentric, the eclectic, and the bizarre. It serves an unrelenting, unnervingly giddy energy, sort of a spiritual successor to the band’s cover of Rob Zombie’s “Dragula.” It also closes with Chris whisper-singing and then cracking up, which is worth a giggle on each listen.

Following that track is the second single off of the record, “Brand New Numb,” which is more egregiously taken from the Rob Zombie school of chorus-writing. No exaggeration, I need someone to make a mashup of this track with “Feel So Numb” to illustrate just how similar they are, right down to the titles.

Even so, I remember being PUMPED when this song dropped. My favorite metalcore band was finally diving headfirst into nu metal. For that reason, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to hate “Brand New Numb,” no matter who it rips off or how shamelessly. Give me liberty or death!

The closing track, “Catharsis,” is a heartfelt number that feels reminiscent of “Sinematic” off of sophomore album Infamous, but in a more solemn, reflective tone. The title is in reference to the feeling of catharsis that music can provide, which is something that I expect the weepy teens listening to this album now can strongly relate to.

The lyrics describe a rejuvenating relief that music can bring when life is painful or overwhelming. It’s a beautiful sentiment dressed up in a catchy chorus. That vulnerability serves Motionless well to create one of their better album closers to date.

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Overall, I don’t think many would claim Disguise to be Motionless In White’s best release, but it’s still a solid record that I think has stood the test of time pretty well. It’s always been fun to watch the band experiment with different sounds and find what works for them, and it seems to me this is the album where they decided what direction they wanted to take the project for the foreseeable future. We should all be so lucky as to shed our own disguises and travel forth with that same level of flagrant confidence.