ILLENIUM collaborates with many artists to create many different sounds. Most recently, "Nothing Ever After" with Motionless in White off of the self-titled ILLENIUM album released April 28 has entered into electronic dance metalcore.
Background on the Artists
ILLENIUM won the award for Remix of the Year at the inaugural Electronic Music Awards in 2017 and Top Dance/Electronic Album at the Billboard Music Awards for the album "Fallen Embers." He's made it to the Billboard Top 100 with "Takeaway" by The Chainsmokers and himself, featuring Lennon Stella. It was on the charts for two weeks and made it all the way up to no. 14. Not to mention, he made it to Forbes 30 Under 30 at one point.
Motionless in White is considered to be one of the big dogs in metalcore. Active since 2004, the band has been a large part of the emo-to-metalhead pipeline. With over 22 million views for their most watched music video, "America" on YouTube, and almost 3.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, Motionless in White is quite successful in their genre.
Highs
"Nothing Ever After" is pretty clean in language, making it fit for all ages (but this wouldn't be low if the lyrics had some profanity). Motionless in White has been doing a decent job at avoiding profanity lately, but it's still surprising with their reputation.
It would be unfair of me not to note Drew Fulk's contributions to this song. I am convinced that any song that he touches is a masterpiece. Drew Fulk is a producer and songwriter who contributed to the Bad Wolves' cover of "Zombie" by The Cranberries and "Runaway" by Lil Peep, so there's a little bit of diversity in his work even though he sticks around metalcore. If a metalcore song is popular, then Drew Fulk probably worked on it.
The chorus is catchy and easily becomes an earworm. ILLENIUM's DJ roots and love for EDM are also clear throughout the entirety of the song. Shockingly, this is one of the lowest listened-to songs off of the album on Spotify-- it only has 1,118,109 plays as of Friday, May 5. Don't get me wrong, the plays on the other songs with artists such as Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, Spiritbox, and more are well-earned, but it's shocking to see one of the big bands in metal be the unsung hero (pun intended) on an album of almost any type.
Lows
I love dirty vocals. Granted, I dabble in black and death metal, like Whitechapel. This song had a few dirty vocals, but not enough for me personally. With Motionless in White collaborating on this song, I would've assumed that there would be less singing and more screaming. After all, this is one of the most notable bands that elder emos got in trouble for listening to, so I was expecting something more like "Filth Friends Unite" by I See Stars. I do enjoy the song, but there's disappointment within my expectations here.
Overall Rating
I would rate "Nothing Ever After" a 7/10.
