ICE NINE KILLS BRINGS THE SILVER SCREAM-A-THON TO MINNESOTA

Ice Nine Kills are giving fans the opportunity to experience the albums ‘The Silver Scream” and “The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood’ played front to back over two nights in each city.

 

 

 

Ice Nine Kills is currently on a special U.S. headline tour called ‘The Silver Scream-A-Thon.’ It is a two-night experience in every city that will offer fans the experience to see the band play the album ‘The Silver Scream’ in its entirety on the first night and on the second night the band will play ‘The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood’ in its entirety. I was able to catch the first night that featured The Word Alive in direct support along with The Funeral Portrait and Melrose Avenue. The Fillmore in Minneapolis, Minnesota was packed and people came with a lot of excitement for this tour. 

 

 

 

Melrose Avenue opened the show with a quick but inspired set. The quartet from Sydney, Australia were on a mission to give America a taste of metal from the land down under. I had never heard of this band but was surprised to see so many people singing along to the songs. It was clear that plenty of people knew who they were and they were winning over the fans that were getting ears on them for the first time. The song that stood out for me was “Body Bag.” A definite rocker that stuck with me long after the concert. It’s always fun to see and experience new bands in these opening slots and try to get to these shows to catch everybody on the tour package as you never know if that band you have never heard of going in is your new favorite gem after the night is over. 

 

 

 

Continuing the theme of, never heard of this band before, The Funeral Portrait took to the stage next. It was painfully obvious I was in the minority on this one. As soon as these guys took the stage, the crowd went nuts. Two lit up coffins flanked the drum kit and from the moment they started it was non-stop energy. Vocalist Lee Jennings understood the art of entertaining as he never stood as he moved all over the stage and had constant interaction with the audience and the band. The set was built on the album ‘Greetings From Suffocate City’ which was release in 2024. Some stand outs that caught my ear were “Suffocate City” and the song they opened with that was extremely catchy called “Generation Psycho.” A fun set from a band that throughly seemed to enjoy being a stage.

 

 

 

In direct support was the metal veterans The Word Alive. Frontman Telle Smith waved to the crowd and then came a  complete sonic blast that stayed at that level through the entire set. This band has been around for over fifteen years and have been one of the premier metalcore bands in that movement.  They opened with “The Word Alive Is Dead…” and it wasn’t long before the circle pit opened up and the crowd surfing was endless. The band featured two guitarists, Jose Delrio and Logan Abernethy and they provided the thunder of the music while the drummer, David Attard,  buried in the corner of the stage, delivered his own assault on his kit. I have been a fan of this band since they dropped the album ‘Deceiver’ in 2010. The bands nine-song set was heavy on 2023’s ‘Hard Reset’ with four songs. The band also played a brand new song called “Eyes Above” that showed where the band is heading next and that there is still a ton of life left in this band. I really love on they closed to the show with the song “Life Cycles” which took us back to the earlier days of the band and that early material hasn’t been forgotten by the band and certainly not by the fans. 

 

 

 

As the introduction of “The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood” was played and the screen’s lit up, the packed venue roared with excitement. As smoked began to devour the stage and lights blitzed over the crowd, Ice Nine Kills launched into “The American Nightmare.” Frontman and INK mastermind, Spencer Charnas, with the classic Freddy Krueger glove on his right hand, took to the stage and took complete control of the show for the entire night. This was the first night of the ‘Silver-Scream-A-Thon’ and they would rip through the 2018 release ‘The silver Scream.’ Every song is masterfully crafted about a horror movie and the band brings it alive on stage with the customs and characters that take to stage to add a bit of small theater that keeps fans glued to the stage. The song about ‘Friday the 13th’ which is called “Thank God it’s Friday” had Jason himself, take the stage, along with his mother. Jason does what he always had done and takes care of the campers in a style he is known for. The movie ‘Halloween’ is represented with the song “Stabbings in The Dark” as a clown stood center stage with a knife. Through the smoke the band emerged wearing masks that Michael Myers made famous.

 

 

Every song was as entertaining to listen to as it was to watch the antics on the stage. As good as the visuals were, the songs came across even better. Guitarist Dan Sugarman and Miles Dimitri Baker laced the guitar riffs with venom while bassist Joe Occhiuti and drummer Mike Cortda provided the underlying thunder to the chaos. My favorite song off that album, based off the movie ‘The Crow’, “A Grave Mistake” was the absolute highlight for me. I had never heard the song played live until this show and it was the biggest sing-along song of the night. There isn’t bad song on this album but “Rocking The Boat,” “Freak Flag” and “Love Bites” were really fun songs to hear for the first time. The perfect song to end the show, “IT is the End” began with the iconic yellow rain jacket and red balloons. A song about the iconic novel by Stephen King called ‘IT” The encore was really fun. Taking a break from The Silver Scream stuff, the band returned to the stage  and played “The Fastest Way to a Girls’s Heart is Through Her Ribcage” from the album ‘The Predator Becomes the Prey’ and “The Greatest Story Every Told” from the album ‘Safe is Just a Shadow’ which took us back to the earlier days of the band and both songs got a tremendous reaction from the crowd. The closing song took us back into present day with one of the bands freshest cuts with the song “Meet & Greet” which is based off the ‘The Silence of the Lambs.” A perfect closing song which leads fans right into the next nights performance of “The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood.” Ice Nine Kills continues to be one of my favorite bands going right now and its based on the bands unique blend of metal that embraces as much chaos as it does melody and hooks. Combine that with a fantastic live show, and you have something special. I am really looking forward to what Ice Nine Kills does next.