Morning Metal – Live Review of Motionless In White, Of Reverie, Of Burning Empires & Greylights
Motionless In White, Of Reverie, Of Burning Empires, Greylights
September 6th, 2014
It was quite a highlight to the beginning of the school year last at Ritual Nightclub. Scranton, Pennsylvania industrial metal band Motionless In White made their debut Ottawa show to an incredible turnout, nearly packing the entire venue.
Local band Greylights opened the show. Achieving their first ever circle pit during a live show, they quickly got everyone into the mood with tracks from their debut EP, Tarpeia’s Descent.
Next up was Of Burning Empires, who got the crowd more and more into the overall vibe of the evening. If there was one thing I took away from last night, it was how absolutely insane everyone seemed to be. Not to mention the fact that the crowd sang along to tracks “Leviathan” and “Desolation” and they also got excited to take pictures with the band.
Main support was a band that, and I swear to the Dark Lord, needs to play more shows. Of Reverie really put things into gear with tracks from their debut EP, The Dreamcatcher, and their two new tracks, “Parallels” and “Voice of the Fallen.” They ended with the track which always gets the blood pumping, “Echoes.”
Before I get into Motionless In White, I should probably state that every band had a guest vocalist jump up on stage. These included Kevin Bastien from Obyrne (who are going to be releasing their debut EP, In The Eyes of the Beholder, in the fall) and Sandro Rausa, who is well known for jumping on stage to do a guest verse for Of Reverie. As nice as it is to see guest vocalists, I always have the thought “Why? It’s YOUR band, it’s YOUR performance.” Especially when you have pretty much the best vocalists in Ottawa, Michael Labelle and Tyler Hein fronting the band. Labelle’s growls are so damn deep and heavy they make Satan whimper.
Now, the headliner and the reason everyone was so excited — Motionless In White. Having been just recently getting into this band, I didn’t follow every song as much as I would have liked. The tracks “Sick From The Melt,” “Abigail” and “America” completely blew me away because they sound SO good live. Holy crap, the bass line for “America” shook the venue.
You could really tell that frontman, Chris Motionless, was having a blast having been constantly mouthing “Holy shit” to the crowd and constantly praising the audience for their enthusiasm. I have no doubt they’ll be back after that vulgar display of power (points for Pantera).
Motionless In White ended the show with their brand new single, “Reincarnate” off their upcoming album of the same name. After jokingly mistaking the crowd for chanting “No more songs,” they got right into it with the crowd jumping up and down to the breakdown.
Quite an excellent start to the school year, wouldn’t you say? They’ll be back.
James Rockso – Host of CKCU 93.1 FM’s Morning Metal