The horror-obsessed metal ensemble Ice Nine Kills fuses ferocious metalcore intensity with a dramatic, stage-driven aesthetic drawn from vintage horror cinema and occult themes. Emerging from Boston, the group first appeared in the early 2000s, cycling through assorted musical approaches before locking into a melodic hardcore direction that propelled their pivotal 2015 full-length Every Trick in the Book onto the Billboard 200. Subsequent ghastly releases, The Silver Scream (2018) and The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood (2021), sustained their commercial momentum. In 2024 the outfit unveiled “A Work of Art,” the opening single from the forthcoming Silver Scream 3.
Deriving their moniker from the apocalyptic substance central to Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, Ice Nine rotated personnel and sonic palettes at a rapid pace during their formative period, exploring ska-punk and post-hardcore textures on the independently issued The Pop-Punk Ska Years (2002). They expanded the name to Ice Nine Kills for Last Chance to Make Amends (2006), then stabilized their roster in 2009 around vocalist Spencer Charnas—the sole remaining original member—alongside guitarists Justin deBlieck and Justin Morrow, bassist Shane Bisnett, and drummer Conor Sullivan. This configuration steered the band toward a denser, more metallic sound on 2010’s Safe Is Just a Shadow, issued via Ferret Music. Bisnett departed in 2011; Steve Koch filled the bass slot for road dates supporting the Word Alive and Issues. The Predator EP arrived in 2013.
By late 2015, Ice Nine Kills had joined Fearless Records and delivered Every Trick in the Book, their fourth studio album and first to register on the Billboard 200. Amid continuous touring they issued a re-recorded edition of Safe Is Just a Shadow plus several singles, among them “Nature of the Beast” and a version of “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.” Sullivan exited in 2018, leaving the band as a core creative trio. Shortly afterward they launched the next album cycle with “The American Nightmare,” a track rooted in A Nightmare on Elm Street. That cinematic thread shaped their fifth album, The Silver Scream, whose thirteen songs each drew from a distinct horror film, including Friday the 13th (“Thank God It’s Friday”), Saw (“The Jig Is Up”), and The Shining (“Enjoy Your Slay”). The collection entered the Top Five of the U.S. Hard Music and Rock charts and reached the Top 30 of the Billboard 200. Two years later the concert document I Heard They KILL Live!! appeared. In 2021 the sixth studio effort, The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, again mined classic horror sources and included appearances by Jacoby Shaddix, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, and Brandon Saller, among others. In 2024 the band supplied the single “A Work of Art” to the horror feature Terrifier 3. Channeling the movie’s central figure Art the Clown and featuring System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian, the track is slated for the forthcoming Silver Scream 3 LP.
