Review: Ice Nine Kills- The Silver Scream
October 15, 2018
Metal and horror have always gone hand-in-hand and meshed well. So when Ice Nine Kills sat down to write The Silver Scream– a record where each song is inspired by a cult horror classic, it made perfect sense, especially since their previous record was the same but with classic novels.
Everything about this record is just perfect- even down to the album art which depicts a dark movie theater with a knife-wielding hand coming out of a movie screen toward a theater full of screaming moviegoers.
The band put some real thought into this material and having it come out in the Fall is a beautiful thing. The films they chose to work with couldn’t have summarized the horror culture more- A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Saw, The Shining,Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Crow, Jaws and The Shining are among them but they also picked out a few that you wouldn\’t have normally thought of- such as The Devil’s Rejects and An American Werewolf in London, making for a fun experience for the listener.
One thing that can be said about this record is that Ice Nine Kills really went out of their way to make The Silver Scream have a cinematic feel and frontman Spencer Charnas’ vocals have that dark, narrative feel to them and it pays off in so many ways.
The breakdowns throughout each song really give it a horror-feel too; they have that element of epic cinematic darkness that you’d hear when a victim is in a panic or running from the slasher in the middle of the desolate, black wooded areas of nowhere.
They didn’t just throw together a few ideas and put them into a record. Each song is written and given the same attention as the others and, being horror fans themselves, they recognize the importance that, if you’re going to pull out names of such iconic horror franchises, they need to make sure to take their time and make something special- horror fans are picky and critical to put it lightly.
In the end, this is a record the band should be proud of and is truly a step outside of the box that so many bands are afraid to venture out of.
Rating: 9.5/10
-Reggie Edwards