Photo credit to F. Scott Schafer
Just in time for Halloween, the kings of horror metal are back, and they are back with a vengeance. For the first time in a year since their last original song, Ice Nine Kills put out “A Work of Art” on Friday featuring System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian, for the latest and goriest in the Terrifier movie trilogy. Along with the single, INK also put out a 15 minute long music video for the song, which we will touch on in a bit.
For a quick background on the Terrifier series for those not caught up on the horror scene, it started as an independent slasher film directed by Damien Leone in 2016, starring David Howard Thornton (we’ll get back to him) as Art the Clown.
A sequel was released in 2022, and the latest released this past Friday in conjunction with the song. To put it simply, the Terrifier films are some of the goriest, gut-wrenching things to ever be put on screen. I’m a big horror fan, not easily phased by gore, but these films are rough. Maybe that’s why INK frontman Spencer Charnas has become close friends with Leone and Thornton.
Terrifier 3 quickly gained box office fame, even for only being out for a handful of days. On it’s opening weekend, it hit over $20 million, a wild amount for a movie with a production budget of only $2 million. It outpaced Joker: Folie a Deux to reach the number one film at the box office.
Photo credit to F. Scott Schafer
While this song goes along with Terrifier 3, this could have just as easily been a stand alone INK single. The fast paced syncopation calls back to the band’s earlier metalcore roots on albums such as 2014′ “The Predator Becomes the Prey” and blends it with the slasher themes found on 2018’s “The Silver Scream.” In fact, this is the second song the Massachusetts maestros have done about a clown, the other being “IT Is the End” based on the film IT.
A song about a murderous clown plus the SOAD influence from Shavo could only mean pure chaos in the best kind of way. The chorus highlights Charnas’ embracing a bit more of a natural vocal style. I only say that because it sounds much more like him live than on past songs, which I personally love having seen INK twice.
“The art of dying brings me to life
Death by design
I’m tongue tied and you’re terrified now
Dying brings me to life
Their blood won’t dry
I’m tongue tied and you’re terrified
T-t-t-t-t-tongue tied and you’re terrified”
After the second chorus, a police call plays, similar to the one found on “Stabbing in the Dark” (again, making a lot of call backs to the first Silver Scream album). After that interlude comes a bridge from Leah Voysey, who appeared in the second Terrifier film;
“Welcome to a gallery that you won’t ever leave
‘Cause nothing is subjective as he stabs and hacks and cleaves
Beauty’s in the eye of the beheader for tonight
The devil’s in the details and he’s painted white”
After the bridge, an absolutely wild breakdown ensues, showing Shavo’s influence on the track. The second half of the breakdown includes what we learn in the video to be Art the Clown performing a bass solo and smashing piano keys. From here, we move on to a reprised chorus, something I’m an absolute sucker for.
Speaking of the video, no Ice Nine Kills music video would be complete without a few cameos. First is SiriusXM Octane’s Jose Mangin, who also appeared in the band’s video for their song “Hip to Be Scared.” And remember how I mentioned earlier to take note of David Howard Thornton? Well in the video, he portrays the Art the Clown. This is a bit of a departure from previous INK videos where the killer is almost always Spencer Charnas, but once again, we’ll get back to that.
Taking place in a venue at an INK show, Art goes on an absolutely horrific and murderous rampage. Without going into too much detail, this is by far INK’s darkest and goriest music video yet, following with the film. But safe to say if you don’t care for blood and a bit of torture, I would say just listen to the song. But if the goriness is something you’re into, this will be right up your ally.
After killing everyone in the venue (including the band) it was revealed in true Ice Nine fashion that was just a music video, in this case being pitched to a record executive. For unknown reasons, it is revealed that Spencer is in a coma and was not at the meeting. This might be due to something happening on the shoot of the video.
One aspect of the banter that ensues between the exec and the band is the introduction of INK’s new drummer, Michael Cortada, following the departure of Patrick Galante, their drummer for the past six years, which he announced on his social media on Saturday. He sat out touring with the band in support of Metallica in Europe due to health reasons, filled in by the band’s photographer/videographer Adam Reed.
More banter between the band, and the exec tells them they can’t keep doing the horror trope, especially with intellectual property infringements. While in real life the band is often on close terms with the directors and producers whose characters they use, let’s suspend our disbelief for a bit. Here we see the band getting a video call from Terrifier director Damien Leone saying to not use his character.
To cap off the video, the record exec goes and visits Spencer in the hospital, where he goes to try to get him to sign an agreement to use an AI version of the singer on stage. When he arrives to Charnas’ bedside, all that’s there is a lump of pillows under the blanket. After seeing this, the exec is jumped from behind by a man wrapped in bandages, presumably Charnas, ending the main video and going into the credits.
It really wouldn’t be an Ice Nine Kills video without a tape and a backstory. Just like Terrifier 3, both the song and it’s accompanying video are a bloodshed of gore and chaos, something I know many INK fans love dearly.
Along with the overnight success of the film, the song has hit over 1 million streams on Spotify in a matter of days and over half a million views on the music video, making it the quickest growing song in the band’s history. When asked about the overnight success, Charnas had this to say:
“This has been an unbelievable ride. Seeing both Terrifier 3 and our track reach these heights is something we never imagined, but at the same time, it’s what we dared to dream we could achieve. A Work of Art reflects everything we love about horror and music, and to have it resonate so deeply with our fans—and the Terrifier fanbase—has been unreal. Psychos, we’re just getting started!”
The music video for “A Work of Art” can be found here and the song can be streamed here. INK will be supporting Metallica along with Limp Bizkit, Pantera, and Suicidal Tendencies at various U.S. dates between April and June of next year.
