Ice Nine Kills Brings Horror And The Octane Accelerator Tour To The Ritz Ybor

November 17th

It’s been over a year since Ice Nine Kills highly acclaimed fifth album The Silver Scream dropped on Fearless Records. The band approached writing this album a little differently than others. In order to put out the best, sometimes you need to be inspired by the best and that’s exactly what they did. By pulling inspiration for each song from some of the best horror movies, they were able to apply those themes with tracks like “Thank God It’s Friday” (Friday the 13th) or “Love Bites” (American Werewolf in London). But luckily for the fans here tonight, life will surely imitate art.

Any time you hear that notorious piano line from Halloween, you know something bad is about to happen. Just as the famous score ends, a jingle which sounds like its from the 50’s which turns out to be “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” giving the start of the show a theater type atmosphere. But I’ve never been to a theater to see Friday the 13th and had Jason Voorhees standing over me with a 3 foot machete. As all the members hit the stage, horror classic like IT, Friday the 13th, Edward Scissorhands, The Shining and my personal favorite The Crow, are all represented to the fullest.

As “Thank God It’s Friday” kicks off the insanity, Mrs. Voorhees got some stage time with her son as she reminded everyone who’s fault it was that her son drowned in Crystal Lake. Singer Spencer Charnas works the stage terrorizing fans with at first Jason’s weapon of choice the machete but switching it up to a bloodied ax. Shortly after his hardware change, he jumps off stage using the ax to split the photographers and made his way to the barricade to really give the fans something to gasp at.

When someone asks if “You know a Priest” or “Do you feel possessed?”, chances are it’s not a good situation you’re about to find yourself in. Luckily fans were only gifted the song “Communion of the Cursed” which brought out a very flexible Regan McNeil giving us all a small taste of the 1973 classic, and without regurgitated pea soup to the joy of everyone up front. Midway through the song, the fans taking up residence in the center close to the rail got some upclose time and I’m sure a bit of a workout with Spencer.  With no warning, he jumps into the crowd and stands up in place belting out the lyrics as the fans beneath him look like the subway scene in Crocodile Dundee.

This show was unlike most I’ve ever seen in that the inventiveness of not only the bands stage show, but how they are able to tie all of that madness with their ability to delivery technically sound music with ease. Dan Sugarman and Ricky Armellino are flawless with their leads and crushing breakdowns, and still able to pull off background vocals. Patrick Galante and Joe Occhiuti
are the brutal rhythm section that made the floor shake. And of course with a front man that is as dedicated as Spencer Charnas to all the characters that he recreate and also goes to endless bounds to make that connection with the crowd through out the show.

There are many ways to close out a show, but to have a demonic killer clown run wild on a stage with a bike horn basically makes any argument null and void. “IT Is the End” would be the final presentation of the night and it would be the high point of the show. While the thunderous chants of “ICE NINE KILLS!!!” echo across the crowd, red lights illuminate the room to show none other then the Disney icon Mickey Mouse walking across the stage dressed in yellow rain suit with paper boat and red balloon in hand. As he flips off the crowd back and forth, the circus music starts to play as Pennywise steps onto the stage!

 

While the crowd join in with his monologue, Pennywise gets in position as “… we all float down here” triggers the bone crushing intro. Through all the insanity on stage, the sound of the bike horn being squeezed at the break is the most comical yet appropriate element of the song and is one of many little details that amazes me about this band. As the child eating encore beings to come to an end, the sea of phone screens, crowd surfers and applause take over the venue to give thanks to Ice Nine Kills for gracing us with metal and horror under one roof and for one insane show!

The Octane Accelerator Tour carries on until December 1st in New York City, so make sure you get tickets while they’re still available. Also be sure to pickup Ice Nine Kills’ newest album The Silver Scream out on Fearless Records either through the bands site or on all major streaming platforms. For all merch go to the bands website at  https://www.iceninekills.com/.