TRACK REVIEW: Playing God (ft. Corey taylor) by Motionless In White

Motionless In White are back with their second single from their upcoming album Decades! This single isn’t just any normal single though, this instant classic features The Great Big Mouth, number 8 himself, Corey Taylor.

The last album Scoring The End Of The World that came out in 2022 (and the deluxe version the year after) took a more beautiful, melodic and generally epic turn with songs like Masterpiece, Werewolf and titular track featuring the soundtrack god that is Mick Gordon. So when frontman Chris Motionless was quoted on Metal Planet Music saying “Decades is definitely heavier than some of our past albums. Our current world bred more aggressive energy, anger and resistance.” The whole metal world get excited, and they easily proved that with this new single Playing God.

This track kicks off straight away sounding like it came straight from Slipknot’s self titled 1999 album with a fast, sampled and remixed trap style beat, very similar to Eyeless so you know immediately what to expect. This is followed by an almost signature “kick off scream” of “get the f*ck up!”

The verse is the full throttle heavy, perfect mix of the classic Slipknot sound with the modern edge of Motionless In White. The four to the floor heavy beat with Chris Motionless going all out with demonic vocals almost rapping while screaming while trading bars with Taylor seamlessly, the track is non stop aggression. It really needs to be said how perfectly the voices of both of these legendary vocalists fit together.

The chorus hits you in the chest with a literal “F*ck you” as the opening line of the hook catches you off guard with the incredibly catchy high standard of chorus that you can only get from the likes of Motionless In White.

Just when you think the song is going to give you a breather, the last note of the second chorus rings out. And in that disturbing moment, Motionless kicks in with his blood curdling distortion starting the breakdown. This isn’t your average metal breakdown that goes back into a double chorus like most songs, this track actually follows a more hardcore/beatdown style song structure and just holds you down while Chris Motionless and Corey Taylor attack you with you pure ruthless aggression that naturally gives you the metal “breakdown face”, you know the one.

The general story and idea behind the song came from toxic internet culture and how hateful the internet is becoming with a desperation on getting popular through being controversial, chasing that high from getting views, likes and comments. With lyrics like Farm deception, fuel the trend. Like a moth to a flame, you would burn for the content. The message is loud and clear.

Motionless In White will release Decades on July 17th, and alongside Corey Taylor, it features other huge names like Skylar Grey and Dark Divine’s Anthony Martinez. To me, this album is already in contention for album of the year.

I give Playing God 9 F*cks out of 10. Thank you for reading!

Review by Josh Fodden.