Album Review: Ice Nine Kills – The Silver Scream (Final Cut) (Fearless Records)

Bridging the gap between horror and metal, Ice Nine Kills focused their 2018 Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart-topping release The Silver Scream on classic films from the genre, while even enlisting some notable guest vocal performances from the likes of Stranger Things’ Chelsea Talmadge and Sam Kubrick, grandson of Stanley Kubrick, who famously directed the iconic Stephen King adaption of The Shining.

Ice Nine Kills will release the ‘Final Cut’ edition of The Silver Scream on October 25th via Fearless Records.

We already wrote a review for The Silver Scream when it was released earlier this year. You can read that here. Rather then reiterate those words, this review is going to offer a brief perspective over the original album tracks from a different writers perspective before diving headfirst into the bonus tracks that make this the Final Cut.

Brendan nailed it on the head when he said this about The Silver Scream:

Occasionally cheesy, I found this album to be immensely entertaining. Not just from the way of a gimmick either, which it kind of is. Musically it is really strong and the mad range of vocals on offer are great. The choruses are catchy and there is so much on offer in here, you can’t possibly get bored. Great album with great 80s inspired cover art too.

As a fan of horror and metal, Ice Nine Kills do everything right on this album and many of these tracks should be on a Halloween playlist come the 31st October. It’s silly, it’s fun but it is very good.

The original album ends with IT is the End but with the ‘Final Cut’ edition of The Silver Scream we get four acoustic renditions of songs from The Silver Scream with guest appearances by Matthew K Heafy from Trivium and Ari Lehman, who played the first Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th. It also features a thrilling cover song and a brand-new number that pays homage to Wes Craven’s 1996 slasher masterpiece, Scream.

It’s that track up first and how much fun is this? As a tribute to Scream it works so well, the sing-song intro mimicking the opening phone call before the metal side of the band comes out to play and delivering slashing riffs and stabbing hooks. If you’ve ever seen the 2013 musical slasher Stage Fright, this song would fit right in as part of that soundtrack.

Up next is a cover, a cover of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Like me, you probably groaned. This is a song that really can’t be bettered no matter how you much you ‘metal’ it up. Give Ice Nine Kills some credit though, they don’t take it too far in regards to heaviness. However, it’s not a good cover. It just makes you want to listen to the original all that more.

Acoustic time now though with a foursome of tracks taken from the original album. Stuff that is literally for the super fan of the band and this album. It’s not that they’re bad, far from it in fact it’s nice to hear the vocals so much clearer, they’re just not required listening.

Which sums up the Final Cut of The Silver Scream perfectly. Not necessary listening. In fact if there really is one reason to check it out, it is Your Number’s Up.

Ice Nine Kills – The Silver Scream (Final Cut) Full Track Listing:

1. The American Nightmare
2. Thank God It’s Friday
3. Stabbing In The Dark
4. SAVAGES
5. The Jig Is Up (ft. Randy Strohmeyer)
6. A Grave Mistake
7. Rocking The Boat (ft. Jeremy Schwartz)
8. Enjoy Your Slay (ft. Sam Kubrick)
9. Freak Flag
10. The World In My Hands (ft. Tony Lovato)
11. Merry Axe-Mas
12. Love Bites (ft. Chelsea Talmadge)
13. IT Is The End (ft. Less Than Jake and Fenix TX)
14. Your Number’s Up
15. Thriller
16. A Grave Mistake (Live from SiriusXM)
17. Stabbing In The Dark (Acoustic ft. Matthew K Heafy)
18. Savages (Acoustic)
19. Thank God It’s Friday (Acoustic ft. Ari Lehman)

Links

Pre-order | Website