A Review of The Silver Scream

Ice Nine Kills hasn’t released new music since 2015, and the release of this album did not disappoint. This album is the bands’ fifth studio album and it is based on famous horror movies that made the Silver Screen. Some of these songs include movies such as Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Stephen King’s IT. Metal fans around the world loved the album and it showed on the charts. The Silver Scream held the 27th spot on the Billboard 200 and second on the Hard Rock chart.

In an interview from October 18, 2018, Frontman Spencer Charnas broke down how each movie influenced the album. “The American Nightmare was inspired by Wes Craven’s hit horror movie, The Nightmare on Elm Street. The entire premise of a killer hunting you in your dreams is so genius because no matter what you do, no one can escape eventually falling asleep, so your death at the hand (or glove rather) of Mr. Krueger is inevitable.”

The band released a set of four music videos where Spencer Charnas visit a psychologist about dreams he has based on these songs; “The American Nightmare”, “Thank God It’s Friday”, “A Grave Mistake”, and “Stabbing in the Dark”. The band also announced that the music video for “IT is The End”, based off of Stephen King’s IT, is set to debut this year. A fifth video was released based on a Christmas celebration in 1993, where Charnas was a child and celebrating Christmas Day with his family (Merry Axe-Mas). If you are easily creeped out by blood, be careful watching these videos. They are not for the faint of heart. Charnas wanted to incorporate each of these videos with as much of the effects to match its movie counterpart.

Before the album released in October of last year, Ice Nine Kills featured some of these songs on their sets of the 2018 Warped Tour. They teased the fans with “Stabbing in the Dark” and “Thank God It’s Friday”. After Warped Tour concluded, Fans were left in suspense and made the album’s release one of the most anticipated metalcore album of the year. It beat out bands such as Silent Planet, Fit for a King, and Architects heavily anticipated album, Holy Hell.

In my opinion, this album was number 3 on my list. It was definitely an improvement over the bands’ last album, Every Trick In The Book. I really enjoyed the horror aspect, because it opens the door to a broader audience. This album appeals to fans of metal/metalcore because of the genre. The album also appeals to horror fans everywhere, due to the movies that inspired the album. If you like horror movies or metalcore, I definitely recommend you give this album a listen. If you have never heard of Ice Nine Kills, look them up on youtube and watch the music videos, they are very well done.