ICE NINE KILLS have spent the better part of a decade turning horror cinema into metal. This autumn they get to score the ride itself.
The Massachusetts band will write new music for "Terror Tram Starring Art The Clown", the 2026 edition of Universal Studios Hollywood's long-running backlot attraction at Halloween Horror Nights. The event opens on Thursday, September 3 and runs select nights through Sunday, November 1.
The premise is exactly as unhinged as it sounds. Art The Clown — the mute, grinning butcher of the "Terrifier" films — turns up at the historic Universal backlot with a bag of blood-soaked presents, works out that it is nowhere near Christmas, and hijacks the tram to hold his own holiday anyway. ICE NINE KILLS's contribution is a set of new recordings that drag classic Christmas songs somewhere considerably darker. Guests who think they have escaped the backlot are warned that Art may be lurking elsewhere in the park.
It extends a relationship that has already paid off handsomely. The band's "A Work Of Art" was the official song of "Terrifier 3"; its video premiered in theatres alongside the film, the track has run up close to 60 million streams, and it debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, where it stayed for 18 weeks.
"We are forever honored that 'Terrifier' writer/director Damien Leone and his team invited us to play in their sandbox of bloodshed," frontman Spencer Charnas said. "Art himself, David Howard Thornton, killed it in the 'A Work Of Art' music video, and we've had Damien and several of his cast members at our Silver Scream Cons every year so far. Halloween Horror Nights is among our favorite destinations each season, and our fans love it, too. This is yet another natural step forward in our unnatural world of horror."
The franchise work has piled up quickly. "Twisting The Knife", featuring Mckenna Grace, closed "Scream 7" and became the band's first No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, also topping Hot Hard Rock Songs. "Hell Or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)" appears in "Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come", and "Play Dead" was written for "Dead By Daylight"'s tenth anniversary alongside an in-game ICE NINE KILLS collection. "A Grave Mistake", inspired by "The Crow", is now RIAA-certified gold.
All of it lands in an anniversary year: 2026 marks two decades since ICE NINE KILLS' first album, a stretch that has taken them from the Massachusetts underground to tours with SLIPKNOT and a hand-picked support slot on METALLICA's "M72" run.
Source: blabbermouth.net