More and more, festivals are becoming the driving force for touring rock and metal bands. While obviously there were none in 2020, festivals are returning in force in 2021, mostly in late summer and early fall. Headliners and co-headliners include such heavy hitters as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, the original Misfits, Korn, Judas Priest, Five Finger Death Punch and Shinedown. Live Metal’s “2021 Festival Spotlight” series aims to bring attention to some of the names in smaller print on the festival admats—the bands you can get up close and personal with at the smaller stages—along with a few higher profile acts we find worth calling out here. See you at the shows.
Playing: Inkcarceration, Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Louder Than Life, Welcome to Rockville
Website: www.iceninekills.com
Latest release: Ice Nine Kills released its first live album, “I Heard They KILL Live,” in 2020 via Fearless Records. The band will releases its next studio record, “The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood,” a sequel to its 2018 album, on Oct. 15.
What You Need to Know: The 2021 festival season’s move to the fall works perfectly for horror-themed metalcore outfit Ice Nine Kills. If this band doesn’t put you in the mood for spooky season, nothing will. Each of the 13 songs on “The Silver Scream” is based on a different horror movie (including classics such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Halloween” and “The Shining,” and more recent fare like “The Devil’s Rejects” and “It”), while last year’s “The Silver Stream” livestream accompanying the live album release mixed footage from the 19-track set with a self-produced horror movie framing device, featuring the band members and horror movie staple Bill Moseley (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” “House of 1000 Corpses,” “The Devil’s Rejects”).
The band, which formed in 2000 under the name Ice Nine, has found its greatest success in recent years, with “The Silver Scream” reaching number two on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart, number four on the Top Rock Albums chart and number 29 on the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, Ice Nine Kills continues to expand into other media, releasing “Inked in Blood,” a tie-in graphic novel to “The Silver Scream,” this year. Frontman Spencer Charnas also has become an in-demand guest vocalist, appearing on songs by Hollywood Undead, Twiztid and many others.
What You Need to Hear:
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