Music Review: Ice Nine Kills Release Play Dead
- Jodie Manthei
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
Boston based Ice Nine Kills has spent the last decade sharing their love of the horror genre through their music, writing songs inspired by literary classics, movies, and video games, including Resident Evil (“Rain Day” ~ Welcome to Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2). The most recent addition to their ever-growing macabre discography is “Play Dead”, written for the tenth anniversary of the popular video game, “Dead By Daylight.”
Written in collaboration with the game’s composer, Michael F. April, the track is dark and dramatic with touches of “Funeral Derangements” and “Take Your Pick” thrown in for good measure. In a recent interview, front man Spencer Charnas said, “Ice Nine Kills has always lived somewhere between menace and mischief. ‘Play Dead,’ our take on Dead by Daylight, is a collision of hooks, horror, and total chaos.”
And total chaos is right. The song opens with open, clean vocals over light instrumentation before delving into blast beats and the growls of Charnas with backing gang vocals. The time signature changes and back and forth between clean and harsh vocals could be jarring to new listeners of the group but are nothing new for long time INK fans. Bassist Joe Occhiuti’s screams are more prevalent throughout the track, fleshing out the performance and feeding into the group’s dramatic flair.
Overall, “Play Dead” is a worthy addition to the Ice Nine collection and leaves fans wondering when their favorite theatrical metal group is going to announce a new album.
“Play Dead” is now streaming on all major platforms.
You can watch the music video here: Ice Nine Kills x Dead by Daylight - Play Dead (Official Music Video Part 1)