Album Review. Ice Nine Kills - The Silver Scream (2018)

I forgot about Halloween and would hardly have remembered if it were not for the children who were ringing in the evening at the door shouting: “Trick or treat!”. Therefore, the thematic review began to write 15 minutes before sunset on October 31st.

I decided not to limit myself to a selection of horror stories and clips. In the evening I found the album of the Boston group Ice Nine Kills, which more than corresponds to the slasher theme of Halloween and sets the right mood.

Strange, but before that I had not heard a single INK song and the studio album “The Silver Scream” was a great discovery for me. Band was formed back in 2002 and since that time it has undergone great changes regarding the team members and the sound style. And now on "the Silver Scream" we hear the result of hard work, which is sure to attract music lovers and fans of the genre melodic post-hardcore.

Album INK shows that even this very post-hardcore can sound decent and ... not ashamed. Yes, exactly. Remember the modern bands, whose members not only look like clones of each other, but also sound equally lousy and monotonous. Naturally, Ice Nine Kills could not go far from the canons of the genre and a glimpse of the songs fall into the hackneyed motifs, but the new Studio work is the highlight, which negates these minor flaws.

INK decided to present the public with a purely Halloween release, saturated with the atmosphere of slasher and Gothic films. In each song, text and music, there is a motif or symbol, which is a reference to the horror of Freddy Krueger, Mike Myers, Leather Face, Crow and even "Edward Scissorhands".

That is, each track here can serve as a good illustration of a particular work. There are even samples from original films, key phrases that give us a good idea of what event is in the song. The text itself is presented rather succinctly, freshly and artistically.

An ideal start for the album was “The American Nightmare” with great reefs and vocals.

“One, two, dreams do come true
Three, four, see you at the morgue
Five, six, he’ll get his fix
Seven, eight, now shake the twisted hand of fate
Now Shake the twisted hand of fate
All your friends are fucking dead”

By the way, it is the vocals and the concept that can be put on the first place in the album, since from the instrumental side you will not hear new ideas. There are some good breakdowns and interesting parts, but it was all before.

You can't sing about Freddy and forget about Jason. The name of the song “Thank God It’s Friday” should immediately tell you what character the song is about. Here we are with Jason Voorhees goes to Crystal Lake. A song by the fire immediately sets the desired tone and atmosphere.

“A Grave Mistake" is a powerful acoustic rock ballad, clearly written as a tribute to the film “The Crow” and in particular to Brandon Lee.

In “Love Bites” I was once again convinced that Spencer Charnas has excellent vocal skills. Another difference on this album is a reshuffle of various styles of singing and I liked Spencer's wedge much more than screaming.

I will not dwell on each of the thirteen(!) songs'. About them need not to speak, and listen to. In each case, there is something attractive, and an additional point to the album "the Silver Scream" throw up memorable choruses. Man, it’s honestly sounds really good.

If you want to slightly dilute your horror-core music track list - definitely for listening.