Ice Nine Kills' latest album, The Silver Scream, is a super-fun, both reverent and irreverent nod to the fright flicks of yesteryear, and a true labor of love for horror fanatic and frontman Spencer Charnas. Fans responded in kind, delivering the metalcore band the highest debut on the album sales charts of their career, and voting the LP into the Top 10 of Revolver's Best Albums of 2018 fan poll. So INK decided to cap off a big year by gifting their fans a special new song and video just in time for the holidays — you can check out the cheeky new crusher "Merry Axe-Mas" above, along with its gleefully unhinged music video, a mix of live action, animation and retro video-game insanity.
"Silent Night, Deadly Night is one of my all time favorite slasher flicks," says Charnas. "In our song and video for 'Merry Axe-Mas,' I wanted to pay tribute to the film's brilliant combination of sleaze, holiday cheer, absurdity and vicious gore. Released in 1984 at the height of the Eighties slasher craze, the film's axe-wielding–Santa marketing campaign threw uptight parents and the PC police into an unholy rage. Angered families staged protests in front of theaters and PTA groups across the country petitioned for the film's banishment. Tri Star pictures subsequently caved and Silent Night, Deadly Night was pulled from theaters after only one week. However, all the negative publicity only fueled the forbidden fruit factor and the infamous film quickly gained cult status. This story just goes to show you that if you try and suppress something, it's only more likely to rear its (decapitated) head."
Below, watch Ice Nine Kills' recent set at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus in full:
