Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills Talks Horror, Metallica, and More

Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills was nice enough to swing by the station before the kickoff to Astronomicon weekend. Because I was on vacation last week, I'm posting it this week. Watch the interview below.

We had to talk about Spencer's 'dad's' band, Grave Diggler. Their latest song was used in the latest Ready or Not film. "You know, it's funny, my dad and I have been estranged for quite some time, but I think music has always been in my blood because of Grave Diggler and what he did for that scene. They don't always get the credit. A lot of people talk about. They don't get any credit. Well, they're starting to now." That they are. He said they're working on more stuff to unearth the famous band from the 80s. "And the documentary that we're working on right now, we're putting it together with some of the guys that did Super Troopers, the Broken Lizard crew, and their big Diggler heads, you know. And I think, you know, a lot of stuff is going to come to light, and it's very exciting."

As far as the Ice Nine Kills camp is concerned, plenty is going on there, too. The latest single, called Twisting The Knife, was used in Scream 7. "Yeah, you know, I've been a big Scream fan since I was a little kid. It was the first horror movie, slasher movie I saw in the theater. And it just blew my mind. I've been a huge fan ever since. And I really liked the new one. I thought that it really paid tribute to all the ones that came before it. But it was darker. And, you know, the movies, as they went on progressively, it was more meta and meta. And it got a little bit of a one-trick pony.
And this one, I feel like, was just a hardened, cold slasher movie. And that's why I really liked it." You can see the video for Twisting The Knife below.

We talked a lot about horror movies. Watch the interview above for more of that.

They've done many dates on the latest Metallica tour. I had to ask Spencer about that experience. "It was, you know, some of the most incredible experiences of my life." He said they've done around 50 shows with the metal legends. That being said, working that big stage is a little bit of a challenge. "But, you know, it took us a little while to get our sea legs, especially with a stage like that that's so unusual. It's like a big donut." He went on to speak about letting the video screens do most of the work on that huge stage. "I'm trying to run around this thing because you're at a stadium. You're like, " Wow, I got to really put on this show". There's so many people here. I got to work, you know, 150 percent of my energy. But what you realize is, you know, the video monitors, when you're in that vast, that large scale of a venue, they do a lot of the work for you."

Even James Hetfield wasn't sure how to work the big deck. "I remember talking to James like one of the first days.
Like, you guys figure out how to use the stage yet? I was like, not really. He's like, "Yeah, still trying to figure it out myself, you know?" But yeah, they're pros, and they still sound and put on such a fantastic show."

A huge Thank You to Spencer for coming by the station, and to George Vlahkis for bringing him by!