Ice Nine Kills: the band that turns horror films into metalcore

Most bands borrow from horror films for the odd lyric or album cover. Ice Nine Kills built a whole career on them. In June 2024 the Boston band played Racino Rocks near Vienna as one of Metallica's support acts on the M72 World Tour. Photos are in the Ice Nine Kills gallery.

From Boston to Horrorwood

Ice Nine Kills grew out of the Boston punk and hardcore scene in the early 2000s, led by singer Spencer Charnas, the one member who has been there from the start. Over the years the sound settled into metalcore: heavy riffs and screamed verses set against big, melodic choruses.

The breakthrough came with The Silver Scream in 2018. Each song on the album retells a classic horror film, from Friday the 13th to The Shining, without ever naming it directly. The sequel, The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, followed in 2021 and pushed the idea further, framed as a story about the fictional town of Horrorwood.

A show, not just a set

An Ice Nine Kills concert is staged like a horror film. Masked killers appear on stage, props and costumes change from song to song, and the band commit to every bit of theatre. Even in a short support slot in daylight, the costumes and the energy make them hard to ignore.

Why it works

The concept could easily be a gimmick, but it holds together because the songs are strong on their own and the references reward fans who know the films. It also gives the band a visual identity that most metalcore acts lack, which is exactly what you need when you are playing to a stadium crowd that came for someone else.

Opening for Metallica

Being picked as a support act for Metallica's 2024 European dates put the band in front of audiences far larger than their own headline shows. At Racino Rocks they shared the bill with Five Finger Death Punch before Metallica closed the night.

See the Ice Nine Kills photos, the headliners in the Metallica gallery, and Five Finger Death Punch from the same day.