Live Review: Ice Nine Kills - Academy, Manchester 04/06/2023
On a reasonably warm night, Manchester Academy became the set of Ice Nine Kills musical horror experience. The Wurst Vacation tour was here to welcome their guests to Horrorwood for one night only.
In a packed night of music with 4 artist playing throughout the show, first up was Defying Decay. The band took to the stage at an early time of 7:15pm, which unfortunately meant that for me and many other attendees that were still queuing outside the venue, we were only able to experience a song or two at most. Upon entering the venue you were then met with a snaking queue for the bands merchandise table, sporting vast array of clothing featuring different horror movie influences from Friday The 13th to A Nightmare On Elm Street
From the brief moments shared with Defying Decay, the band sounded great on the night with a mix of electronic music and hard hitting breakdowns, the bands performance was incredibly tight and the vocals, both clean and the screams sounded incredible.
Lansdowne took to the stage next and was a change of pace, with a real all American rock band feel to them. The band brought a real stage presence and you can tell they really pride themselves on performing to a crowd, with every song performed really feeling like it was written to be played live.
Last up of the supports was SKYND, an electro-goth three piece with songs regarding and titled after some of the most well known serial killers, murder cases and world events, with news recordings from the real cases being used as the introductions to the songs. The group created a real feeling of eeriness throughout their set with not just the songs lyrical content, but also with a purposefully jarring and uncomfortable movements. Whilst the songs content may not be for everyone, SKYND's unique sound and presence got the crowd moving and ready for the main event.
Due to arrive on stage at an unusually late time of 9:50pm, the anticipation had built up to a boiling point. The bands team emerged on stage to throw balloons to the crowd met by a rapturous cheer. Each balloon pop brought out boo's from the audience – the things you only get with a British crowd. We were played a variety of 80's power ballads and the odd Ska-Punk track chucked in (Maybe a nod to the old Ice Nine roots?), then straight into the iconic theme of Friday The 13th and the fog began to billow out of the machines. Would Ice Nine Kills be taking to the stage? No, instead Walking On Sunshine as played to a more than gracious crowd.
Arriving on stage bang on time, the setlist was opened with Funeral Derangements, a hard hitting and heavy anthem based on cult classic movie Pet Cemetery.
Brought onto the stage were 2 masked butchers grasping hatchets and cleavers looking across to the crowd below.
If you are yet to listen to or have a deep dive into INK's discography, since their 2018 release of The Silver Scream, and followed up with 2021's Welcome To Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2, the basis for each song is a different horror movie or villain. If you are a fan of horrors and slashers, I can't recommend giving the two above albums a listen as a starting point. The songs are so cleverly written but yet avoid feeling gimmicky. If you were blissfully unaware of the movies you would never really know at all. Musically the band are faultless, every breakdown is punchy and meaningful, each verse with plenty to listen out for and the songs don't overstay their welcome.
The band bounce from song to song without any real break in between, the lights are dimmed whilst the props and costumes are brought on for the next performance.
Second was Wurst Vacation, the title track of the tour and based on torture horror series starter Hostel, detailing the tale of debauchery leading to the characters demise.
Hip To Be Scared is a take on American Psycho, including THAT iconic 80's pop masterpiece from the scene in Bateman's apartment, whilst Spencer, donning the plastic suit from the movie, knocked out and beheaded his victim on stage. The song burst straight back to life with a 'Hey Paul'.
My personal favourite horror-comedy saga was the next to get the metalcore treatment with Ex-Mørtis, a take on the Evil Dead franchise. With Spencer clutching his own Necronomicon, as well as an arm wielded chainsaw, needed to take down the deadite that ventured on stage towards the songs dramatic conclusion.
Having sold out the academy on this tour, hopefully moving into a bigger venue for the next tour would really allow the band to go all out with the theatrics and the show itself. You can really see there is a strong love of all the movies used to spin on and it would be great to see INK go all out on this. Having the vocal duties shared between members allows for the showmanship as well as incredible screaming harmonies that is not a common occurrence within the scene but really adds an huge atmosphere and depth to the tracks when utilised .
The band not taking themselves too seriously makes the show fun throughout and stops it all feeling a bit cheesy.
The following tracks were Communion Of The Cursed, a take on false salvations within religion – Whilst also being a spin on The Exorcist and a throwback to their 2015 album Every Trick In The Book, where the themed songs really began.
The American Psycho was next up focussed on the Wes Craven classic A Nightmare On Elm Street. The catchy chorus and Freddie props used made this one of the most memorable tracks of the evening. It was also one of several movie themed t-shirts available from the bands merchandise table.
Following the trend of songs that featured a merch tie in, The Shower Scene began to a roar from the crowd and featured an on stage recreation of the most memorable moment from the original Psycho movie.
Towards the end of the set INK began to really power through the remaining tracks.
Assault & Batteries about Childs Play, A Grave Mistake for cult classic The Crow.
SAVAGES, which included members of the family on stage with chainsaws in hand was for, of course, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Farewell II Flesh brought with it The Candyman.
The big finale was in the form of Stabbing In The Dark – An ode to the Halloween franchise and an end to a setlist that was a cut above the rest.
Leaving the stage briefly, there was one noticeable song missing. Welcome To Horrorwood.
The title track of the latest release and unlike all the other tracks played so far, this pokes fun at the film industry as a whole and not one specific movie.
The track includes all the theatrics you would come to expect and is a really great end to a fantastic setlist.
If you have been on the fence about heading out to see INK, it is absolutely worth seeing. The show is an absolute blast from start to finish. If you are really dedicated, there is no small amount of the audience that have also dressed themselves up in costumes from many of the movies mentioned not too unlike heading out to see something like Rocky Horror. The musicianship on show is super impressive. I arrived without much in the way of expectations but left with a great affinity for Ice Nine Kills. In the right venue and stage set up they could be up there with the likes of Rammstein in terms of stage presence and theatrics.
Words by Thomas Maclachlan
Photography by Maryleen Guevara
