“The Silver Screen,” released Oct. 5, transforms popular horror film classics into songs. Courtesy of Fearless Records
By Salvador Castillo
As we close in on Halloween, our need for scary and horror-inspired entertainment is reaching a fever pitch. Thus, we huddle around our laptops, phones and TV screens eagerly searching for the newest horror features to sink our teeth into.
While many people turn to books or movies, music also gravitates more toward horror. Metal music is often a faithful provider of horror-inspired tracks, and metalcore band Ice Nine Kills’ newest album “The Silver Scream” is no exception.
The album shows the band’s ability to transform well-known works into a unique set of music. The band did this in 2015 with its fourth studio album “Every Trick In The Book,” where each song was based on a piece of literature.
Unlike previous albums, “The Silver Scream” takes horror movies and turns them into songs, and it works beautifully.
The first song, “The American Nightmare,” is based on the 1984 film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and is sung from the viewpoint of Freddy Krueger, the main antagonist.
The tracks “Thank God It’s Friday” and “Stabbing In The Dark” are based on director Sean S. Cunningham’s “Friday the 13th” and Wes Craven’s “Halloween,” respectively.
The band doesn’t limit itself to the conventional aspects of horror movies. “Love Bites” is inspired by the 1981 film “An American Werewolf in London.” The song focuses on the romance between the movie’s main character, David Kessler, and his love interest, nurse Alex Price.
Ice Nine Kills also doesn’t stick to horror movies for the entire album. The song “The World In My Hands” tells the story of Edward Scissorhands, a young man with scissor blades for hands who was created by an old inventor.
The album’s writing is well-done. You can tell the band researched the lore behind each movie franchise before they sang about them. It includes instrumentals to match each movie and pays respect to the musical motifs from each respective movie.
The stand out songs on the album are “Merry Axe-mas” (“Silent Night, Deadly Night”), “Rocking The Boat” (“Jaws”), “The Jig Is Up” (“Saw”), “Enjoy Your Slay” (“The Shining”), and “IT is the End” (“IT”).
If you prefer softer songs, I recommend, “Love Bites,” “A Grave Mistake” (“The Crow”), and “The World In My Hands.”
However, if you want to get into a more metal-esque territory without it being too heavy, the songs “SAVAGES” (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) and “Freak Flag” (“The Devil’s Rejects”) are what you’re looking for. The songs aren’t distinctly metalcore, but they’re still metal music greatness.
The mix of metal and horror is a timeless classic, and if you’re a horror fan, like myself, then you will probably end up going back to see the movies referenced in here once the album is over. Or you might end up replaying it from start to finish. Either way, the choice is yours. But this album will slash its way to your queue –– you can be sure of that.
“Thank you very much, enjoy your slay!”
