Boston, MA · metalcore · horror punk · theatrical metalcore

Ice Nine Kills

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Horror-movie metalcore staged as full theatre — every song a slasher reference, every set closer to a production than a gig.

Ice Nine Kills started in 2000 as a ska-punk band called Ice Nine, formed by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz. Drummer Grant Newsted joined in 2003 and bassist Hobie Boeschenstein in 2004. An early demo, recorded in 2002, later surfaced in 2009 as The Pop-Punk-Ska Years. The band renamed itself Ice Nine Kills, borrowing the name from the fictional substance in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, and released its debut album, Last Chance to Make Amends, in 2006.

Touring followed the 2007 EP The Burning, with dates alongside I See Stars and Eyes Set to Kill, and opening slots for As I Lay Dying, A Day to Remember, Thursday, Paramore and a Taste of Chaos date in 2009. That year Schwartz left the band, and Charnas, the sole remaining founder, recruited members of the disbanded post-hardcore act Remember Tomorrow, pushing the sound toward metalcore and drawing a deal with Ferret Music.

The retooled lineup released Safe Is Just a Shadow in 2010, with clean vocals shared between Charnas and Dave Sieling, who has since left. Further albums, The Predator Becomes the Prey and Every Trick in the Book, built toward The Silver Scream, which reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, and its sequel, The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, which reached number 18.

Each horror-themed album gives individual songs over to specific films, from slasher franchises to Stephen King adaptations, and live shows extend the idea with costumes, props and staged sequences. Musically the band pairs melodic clean choruses with screamed vocals, palm-muted riffing and orchestral or spoken-word interludes. The band records for Fearless Records.

Ice Nine Kills has since been named among the notable metal acts to emerge from the 2000s, and Charnas has been singled out as one of metalcore's stronger clean singers.

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metalcorehorror punktheatrical metalcore