Macabre metalcore mavericks Ice Nine Kills are bringing their horror convention, Silver Scream Con, to the UK for its first-ever overseas venture. Booked as part of their A Work Of Art UK tour in December - named after their official tie-in song for last year’s holiday slasher Terrifier 3 – the band will set up spookshop in London’s Cumberland Hotel on December 13 and 14, right after their closing date at OVO Arena Wembley on December 12.
Silver Scream Con London will be a celebration and meeting space for Ice Nine Kills fans and some of the stars of the films from which the band have drawn their inspiration.
“When I was a kid, I had an experience at a place called Spooky World, which was the first time I got to meet some of the stars of these horror movies that I grew up loving,” frontman Spencer Charnas fondly recalls. “I got to meet Kane Hodder, who played Jason Voorhees more than anyone [else] in the Friday The 13th franchise, and George P. Wilbur, who played Michael Myers in Halloween 4 and 6. Then I went to a con called Rock and Shock where I’d meet even more people from movies like Scream and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”
The band launched their own horror con in 2022, and have now hosted four conventions in the US for horrorhungry fans.
“We started in Danvers, right outside of Salem, Massachusetts as an appropriately spooky place,” Spencer explains. “Two years later we would move it to where Rock and Shock used to be in Worcester, MA, and so now we’re taking it international!”
Conventions are a fundamental staple of the horror industry, allowing fans, filmmakers and actors to mingle. But in metal, where the festival is king, Silver Scream Con is a somewhat pioneering intertwining of the two worlds in which Ice Nine Kills have grown up. Horror inspiration in metal isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s these opportunities to build community that make a difference to Spencer.
“It’s a really natural extension of who we are,” he says. “We look at ourselves, at least since [2018 and 2021’s] The Silver Scream albums, as not just a band but treating it like a movie franchise, and so whether it’s the directors or the make-up people or the actors, we’re bringing these people altogether in one place with our fans to celebrate these films that inspired Ice Nine Kills’ music. You’re getting all of these great vendors selling tons of custom and exclusive merchandise, and it’s going to be a jam-packed, bloody weekend right before Christmas.”
Due to INK’s connection to the Terrifier films, writer/director Damien Leone and Art the Clown actor David Howard Thornton will be among the guests at Silver Scream Con London, along with Art’s creepy sidekick Victoria Heyes, played by Samantha Scaffidi – and, in what Spencer teases to us as a previously unannounced exclusive, Rose McGowan of Scream/ Planet Terror fame. Testament to the value of such events is the very relationship between INK and the Terrifier team, formed through shared spaces at conventions in the US.
“It was pretty clear right off the bat that there was such a strong crossover between people who loved Terrifier and Ice Nine Kills, because there’d be so many Ice Nine Kills shirts in the Terrifier line and vice versa,” Spencer says. “I grew up loving when the bands I loved joined forces with the movies that I loved. You had Dokken of course for [Nightmare On Elm Street sequel] Dream Warriors, Alice Cooper with [Friday The 13th instalment] Jason Lives, and then great soundtracks like The Crow and Freddy vs. Jason."
"We’ve done a lot of music that’s covered our favourite movies, but Terrifier was the first time we’ve officially been part of one," he continues. "To go to the Terrifier haunted house attraction at Universal Studios now and hear our song being used there is a scream come true!”
Given the plastering of Art the Clown all over the promotion for the A Work Of Art tour, you might be wondering if the jolly little lad will be making appearances across the actual shows themselves, to which Spencer is roguishly evasive.
“Well, I can’t tell you that!” he protests. “I’m not gonna tell you which closet Michael Myers pops out of or what part of the movie Jason is gonna jump out of the water, it’d ruin the whole surprise!”
Clown or no clown though, it’s been startling to see Ice Nine Kills, a band of more than 20 years, recently rise to the point where they’re headlining arenas over here.
“We played Wembley Arena last summer as support to Five Finger Death Punch, in between our stadium shows with Metallica. Here we are just a little bit more than a year later, and it’s incredible,” Spencer admits. “It’s strange to be thinking, ‘Are we an arena band?’, but I guess to some extent we are. Thank you, Metallica!”
Ice Nine Kills play Wembley Arena December 12. Silver Scream Con London takes place December 13-14 at The Cumberland Hotel in London. For tickets and more info, visit the official website.
