Ice Nine Kills - 'I Heard They KILL Live!!' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Thank God It’s Friday

2. The Jig Is Up

3. SAVAGES

4. The Nature Of The Beast

5. The World In My Hands

6. Communion Of The Cursed

7. A Grave Mistake

8. Your Number’s Up

9. Rocking The Boat

10. Merry Axe-Mas

11. Thriller

12. Hell In The Hallways

13. Stabbing In The Dark

14. The Fastest Way To A Girl’s Heart Is Through Her Ribcage

15. Love Bites

16. Tess-Timony

17. Me, Myself and Hyde

18. The American Nightmare

19. IT Is The End

Boston Horror themed Metalcore outfit Ice Nine Kills is releasing their first live album, 'I Heard They Kill Live!!', recorded last year on the ‘Octane Accelerator’ tour at the Worcester Palladium, playing songs from across their discography.

The concert starts with a typical American cinema jingle (given the horror film theme of INK’s last studio album 'The Silver Scream'), which then segues into ‘Thank God It's Friday’, their song based on the Friday The 13th film series.

The album then moves through songs based around movies such as the Saw franchise and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, playing every song note perfect. Then comes ‘A Grave Mistake’, a chance for Spencer Charnas’ vocals to really soar, showing his talent not only as a screamer, but as an accomplished clean vocalist as well, pumping the track full of emotion, giving you chills.

In amongst all the homages to horror lies a rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', transforming it into a glorious Metalcore version that blew my mind. Adding riffs and breakdowns to the iconic track may seem ridiculous to some, but personally I think it was the right call and proves to be an excellent cover.

Charnas' vocals shine again in back to back ballads 'Love Bites' and 'Tess-Timony', proving again the talent and range the band have to be able to not only pull off high-energy metal but the slower side as well.

I went to see Ice Nine Kills a couple of months before this gig was recorded when they came to tour the UK, and I can safely say that this album captures the atmosphere of one of INK’s gigs perfectly. They are one of the most theatrical bands I've yet to see, so it was no small feat to pull this off as well as they have. This is perhaps one of my favourite live albums of all time.