"Hip to be Scared," "Assault & Batteries," "Take Your Pick' and In This Moments hits include "Black Widow," "Ritual," "Blood" and "Adrenalize"
About Ice Nine Kills
Like the undead slashers celebrated in their songs, ICE NINE KILLS return with The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, a sequel of gruesome movie-sized proportion to their No. 1 Billboard Hard Rock Album, The Silver Scream. Welcome to Horrorwood carves out a fresh, bloody homage to the VHS celluloid classics that possessed singer Spencer Charnas at an early age, with a devilish new twist.
ICE NINE KILLS make music both timeless and timely, mixing metal, hardcore, and punk, with accessible power. New hard-rock-and-horror anthems like “Hip to be Scared,” “Assault & Batteries,” “Take Your Pick,” and “Farewell II Flesh” demonstrate Spencer’s fascination with fright, pop culture obsession, and his expertise with inescapably wicked melodic hooks and clever twists of phrase.
Drew Fulk (A Day To Remember, As I Lay Dying, Emmure) produced The Silver Scream and returned for Welcome to Horrorwood. Album guests include Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach), George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (Cannibal Corpse), Brandon Saller (Atreyu), Ryan Kirby (Fit For A King), and Buddy Nielsen (Senses Fail). The album mixes the melodies, riffs, and wit that are the band’s signature, as heard in the Top 10 Mainstream Rock single “A Grave Mistake” and Top 20 hit “Savages.”
Dan Sugarman (guitar/vocals), Ricky Armellino (guitar/vocals), Patrick Galante (drums), and Joe Occhuiti (bass/vocals) are the current co-conspirators behind Charnas, who founded the band as a teen in the early 2000s. Decadent, devious, and fiercely insane, ICE NINE KILLS celebrates pop culture’s darkest edges, mining a cinephile library’s worth of iconic horror on The Silver Scream and The Silver Scream 2. The creative marriage made in hell of music and fiction began in earnest with the Top 5 Hard Rock album, Every Trick in the Book, which brought the previous three records’ themes to new levels.
Loudwire hails ICE NINE KILLS as “one of the most unique acts in metal right now.” The band’s synergy of music and lifestyle draws favorable comparisons to Slipknot and Rob Zombie. Visionary trailblazers and multimedia raconteurs, INK built a thrilling world for a growing legion of devoted true believers, with theatrical shows, high-concept videos, and inventive band-to-fan communion. Learn more at https://iceninekills.com/.
About In This Moment
With a Grammy nomination (“The In-Between,” 2021), platinum and gold record sales, multiple Top 25 entries on the Billboard Top 200 (“Black Widow” and “Ritual”), hits including “whor*,” “Blood,” and ”Adrenalize” and career streams of more than 1.3 billion, you’d think In This Moment might rest on their laurels. Instead, they’ve created GODMODE, 10 dynamic songs that mark a new high for the quintet, further cementing their legacy in the heavy music world. Proof positive is in GODMODE’s first single, the industrial-heavy yet ultra-melodic “THE PURGE,” and its darkly cinematic video directed by Jensen Noen (Bring Me The Horizon, Demi Lovato). From the portentous start of the ‘90s-tinged “GODMODE” with Maria Brink’s powerful primal scream to the pitch-perfect cover of Bjork’s 1995 “Army of Me” to the impassioned pain to partnership in “EVERYTHING STARTS AND ENDS WITH YOU,” GODMODE is a cut above.
The L.A.-based band’s eighth album finds vocalist Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth writing the most powerful songs of their career. “We’re always striving for reinvention and growth. It’s been 10 years since our Blood album, and there’s been a lot of transitions happening, this year particularly, but it all felt so meant to be,” explains Brink.
Top talent aided and abetted In this Moment; Spencer Charnas from Ice Nine Kills guests on the pointed and pained “DAMAGED,” and several songs were co-written with Tyler Bates, the award-winning producer and composer of numerous film, television, and video game scores. In fact, the initial collaboration with Bates, the moody, haunting mid-tempo winner “I WOULD DIE FOR YOU” ended up both on the John Wick: Chapter 4 soundtrack and as the last cut on GODMODE.
In This Moment, a touring juggernaut who’ve slayed stages worldwide at Ozzfest, Warped Tour, Download, Knotfest and Rocklahoma, put out Mother in 2020, during the pandemic, giving fans something to hold on in during that bleak time, and earning “The In-Between” the band’s first Grammy nod. It was 2021 when Howorth and Brink first wrote with Bates on “I WOULD DIE FOR YOU.” Following that collaboration, the duo was writing organically, for pleasure, not focused on the next album. As the pandemic waxed and waned, Howorth learned programming, and created music around synthwave sounds, which Brink leaned into. Her lyrical ideas arose both from soul-searching and “humanity and so much crisis and so many heart-wrenching things in the world. That negativity and darkness is how songs like ‘THE PURGE’’ came about,” Brink explains.
The end result is that when In This Moment went into the studio in January 2023, the easy flow had allowed them to compile the most songs they’d ever written at one time, songs the entire band loved. Longtime producer Kevin Churko helped shape ITM’s sound starting in 2008, but for GODMODE, his son, Kane Churko, was at the helm. “Kane’s got all the strengths that his father taught him–everything, all the bells and whistles, but he’s got some new tricks because he’s a younger generation, he’s hungry,” says Brink.
Kane was the perfect match for In This Moment’s inspired songs “During the pandemic, just writing versus writing with a pressure that music has to be for an album, allowed us the freedom to make the record we made,” says Howorth.
GODMODE’s songs gained even more strength in the studio, with Kane shaking up the band’s usual m.o. even further. “Having some songs by Tyler influenced us as well,” Brink explains. “It was scary for the band, but it ended up flowing just so beautifully. We felt very experimental.” That flow gave the album its name and theme. GODMODE isn’t religious, rather it’s an expression for a triumphant flow state where all comes together seamlessly, coalescing into an ultimate form. As Brink sings in “GODMODE,” “You got me feeling so high / You lift me off of my feet yeah / You got me feeling like, feeling like / I’m in Godmode.” In video games – Howorth plays the game “Destiny” – “God mode” also refers to a code that makes a player invincible. “There’s a spontaneity in this album that you can hear. It’s a little more visceral. And that we’re not with Kevin, who has done all our albums except for our very first, fans will hear those differences too, which is really cool and exciting for us,” Howorth says. “We had all this built-up energy from the last three years, we felt angst, we felt we had a lot to release,” furthers Brink. “And we were letting it loose organically, while also playing with different time signatures and interesting things like that.”
“We use an 8-string on the album, which we haven’t done before,” Howorth says. “We did some different tunings, and it can definitely be freeing from guitar standpoint, the way we did things this time. Working with Kane was different and more off the cuff, being in the studio, getting creative and just trying a bunch of different stuff on every song. It was a really good experience.” As fans of Brink’s lyrics know, life in and around In This Moment hasn’t always been easy. As Brink recalls, “When I met Chris, I was just a starry-eyed girl with huge dreams. And he was in a Pantera-like metal band!” She told Howorth she wanted a heavy lineup that could sell platinum and win Grammys. The band had an early manager who told them it would never happen. But his dismissiveness only fueled In This Moment’s fire, energy and fight. “We’re just relentless,” says Brink. “Anything’s possible if you really put your mind and energy into it.”
For GODMODE, that energy also went into the “THE PURGE” video, where director Noen brought his artistry and next-level talent to Brink’s storyboard ideas. The larger-than-life video themes and sets have been translated into In This Moment’s live stage show, literally. And summer 2023 saw the band on its first arena co-headlining tour with full pyrotechnics. “Our whole lives we’ve talked about being in an arena and having fire and a full show,” Brink says. “And now we’re doing it and it’s just so beautiful.”
In this Moment certainly have nothing to prove, the lineup’s authority assured live on record and onscreen. Yet, GODMODE’s energy and scope is visceral. “With our new ideas and excitement and Kane’s energy of wanting to prove himself to everybody, we were able to show that we’re heavy and just as impactful as every other new band coming out right now,” says Howorth. “We can punch you right in the face, that energy is in there big, time. I think our fans are really gonna like this album, because it’s taken us back a little bit where it began, but it’s also more instinctive, and heavier than anything we’ve done a long time,” concludes Howorth.
Brink, a private person, nonetheless gives and takes much strength from ITM’s millions of fans. The healing is on both sides. “It’s amazing if my songs help people feel empowered. When humans share painful things that we went through and how we heal from it, we can help each other and pass that energy on,” she says. “Honestly, the most beautiful thing about being in a band is being able to have that connection with strangers who become kindred spirits. Sure, I have urges to wear ‘masks’ and hide from everything and wear makeup, but I like to share and be honest and vulnerable. The sky’s the limit,” Brink concludes. “You just have to keep dreaming, keep expanding, keep pushing yourself to that next level. I feel like something is shifting right now in the band; this is such a special moment for us with GODMODE.” For more information visit https://inthismomentofficial.com/.
About Avatar
There are no weapons on this planet that can challenge might of the electric guitar. For decades metal has been the most powerful force known to man. Its sonic teeth have gnawed through the status quo over and over, pushing the boundaries for what can be created in the marriage between blood and machine. If a Mount Rushmore were to be carved for all the titans of the genre, it would span the entire globe many times over. It’s a burning beacon, the misfits and rebels.
As time has passed, much of the scene has become divided in two equally stale camps. The first is forever stuck in the past, no longer seeking to lead. The second are those who have forgotten the most important ingredients to what made metal what it was and must remain. They’ve lost touch with the devil. They’ve forgotten how to move. In a genre best experienced with your whole body, they’ve lost the lust.
We grew up together. John and Jonas started the band when they were just 15 and 14 years old. Johannes joined at the age of 16, as did Henrik and finally Simon, who left to be replaced by Tim, a longtime friend of ours, in 2012. While constantly redefining what we do and why we do it, we are among a select few who have remained a true band of brothers. Metal has been our key to the kingdom, our way to see the world. Self-financing our debut when we were between 18 and 19, we have never waited for anyone’s approval or permission. With DANCE DEVIL DANCE we are adamant to give something back for all we’ve received.
DANCE DEVIL DANCE was recorded in the Swedish wilderness, far away from all the perceived glamour of the big city and modern studios. Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Mr. Bungle, Crobot, Stone Sour, Amon Amarth, Uriah Heep etc.) returned as producer. He first worked with us when he mixed Hail the Apocalypse, a role he reprised on Feathers & Flesh before taking the wheel as producer on Avatar Country and Hunter Gatherer. No extra personnel were wanted nor needed. We stayed together for a month, eating, sleeping and breathing DANCE DEVIL DANCE, just the six of us.
With grit and sheer force of will, we made the music the only way metal ever should be done. Modern metal too often becomes hom*ogenized by everyone using the same drum samples and pre-sets for guitars. DANCE DEVIL DANCE is the sound of our bodies in motion, and nothing else. It sounds hard because we play hard. It’s loud because we are loud. Every band knows the challenge of capturing the rage of a stage performance on tape. This time we succeeded. This album bleeds black blood, bludgeoned by the road.
We are a metal circus. The road is our home. DANCE DEVIL DANCE mirrors all the madness of this world and worlds beyond. It’s celebration of the ugly and a challenge in the face of all things deemed beautiful. Metal should make you move. Metal is music for the body. We don’t know when it happened but it seems that at some point recently, most of the world decided that this music was best enjoyed sitting down. This is a great tragedy and it must be rectified. Why have drums, why have bass, if people don’t move their feet?
And feet will move indeed. Our music was always made for the stage first, as anyone can attest to, whether it’s as an opening band for greats such as Iron Maiden or Slipknot, or playing the major stages on Wacken, Hellfest, Download, Rock on the Range, Poland Rock, and many more, or bringing the entire freakshow with us, headlining night after night. From coast to coast across the United States of America and Canada. From Mexico down all the way to Brazil; all over Europe, north, south, east and west. The whole world is our stage, and you better get ready, because when we begin you will all be the Devil’s playthings. For more information visit https://avatarmetal.com/.
