Beware, overconfident keyboard warriors: Chris Motionless and Corey Taylor are coming after the cowards in the comments.
Following Motionless in White’s seething “Afraid of the Dark” single from earlier this year, a new collab between the metalcore vets and Slipknot’s frontman has now been let loose into the wild. A wide-scale and weighty attack on social media toxicity, the cut is called “Playing God,” and it will appear on MIW’s next album, Decades.
The band teased the tune earlier in the week, noting that “Playing God” sported a “MASSIVE feature.” At the time, they also delivered blood-red artwork featuring a decapitated mechanical rat. The name of the guest vocalist was taped over at the time.
Yesterday (May 5th), Chris Motionless delivered a lengthy diatribe on his X account that noted how the then-impending tune is not about one specific person or theme, but rather a broader comment on the “toxic and embarrassing behavior exhibited by the bottom-feeding rats of the internet” who are “scavenging for any morsel of attention that helps them cope with the fact that their existence is a miserable wasteland of desperation and self-inflicted loneliness.”
Now, Motionless and his band have unleashed “Playing God,” a cut that has him and Taylor foaming at the mouth while contemplating the verminous cesspool of hot takes and unearned hubris they’re faced with on socials. Motionless also noted in a statement that to him “negativity, hatred, and lies are at the forefront of everything you see” online.
Sure enough — as you’ll hear through the player up above — he and Taylor rage over click-baiters, influencer phoniness and all those infected by a screen-disseminated “parasocial disease.” “I can’t believe how aggressive Corey sounds,” Motionless adds of his guest vocalist.
“Social media has incentivized the populace to rage bait, farm, lie and share their meaningless hot takes to stimulate their digital economy, and I understand that, but it doesn’t make it any less disheartening,” Motionless continued on X, concluding of online negativity, “I just want people to shut the fuck up and focus on shit that would bring actual fulfillment to their lives.”
As for Decades, it’s confirmed that the record was tracked between Upstate New York and Los Angeles alongside co-producers Drew Fulk and Justin “JD” deBlieck, and is poised to present “past, present, and future sounds into one cohesive sound.” In addition to Taylor, the record features guest spots from Sklyar Grey (“R.I.P.”) and Dark Divine’s Anthony Martinez (“Blood Rave”). It also features “Afraid of the Dark.”
Decades is out July 17th via Roadrunner Records. That’d be the gorily fang-and-skin-flap-bearing artwork and tracklisting down below. Pre-orders for an exclusive copy on “Ruby and Sea Blue” vinyl (limited to 500 copies) are available now in Revolver‘s shop, where you’ll likewise find other entries in the MIW catalogue.
As previously reported, Motionless in White are currently out on the road supporting Bring Me the Horizon’s “Ascension Program” tour. Later this year, MIW headline a North American trek that also features Lorna Shore, Fit for a King and Static Dress. You’ll find the date info here.
Decades tracklisting:
Decades
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R.I.P. (Feat. Skylar Grey)
Fight Like Hell
Playing God (Feat. Corey Taylor)
All That I’ve Ever Known
Blood Rave (Feat. Anthony Martinez)
Love at First Bite
Count Back From Zero
Blood Pact
Afraid of the Dark
Sunglasses at Night
Hollywood (Bonus Track)
Fight Like Hell (Feat. Outlier) (Bonus Track)