Following the huge success of their 2023 tour, Ice Nine Kills and In This Moment brought their Kiss of Death Co-headlining tour back for a sequel. Two of the most creative and other-worldly forces in modern metal brought their spectacular and highly acclaimed live shows to The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas! The power and intensity these bands bring to the stage is something you can only feel in person and was amplified by supporting acts Avatar and TX2.
TX2, who are a mix of punk, emo, grunge, and rap, kicked off the night! The band, fronted by Evan Thomas, who also goes by the stage name TX2, has a pretty impressive following, largely through TikTok, and has had collaborations with artists like G-EAZY. They played “Vampire by Rumor”, “I Would Hate Me Too”, and “Black Wedding,” before closing out with their latest released single, “Mad”, which is recorded with Spencer Charnas from Ice Nine Kills.
Coming all the way from Sweden, Avatar was up next! They kicked off their set with a little magic trick! A man in some sort of executioner’s mask came out carrying a gift box. He placed it on the platform by the drumkit, took the top off, and frontman Johannes Eckerström magically appeared with a balloon in hand! With the pop of the balloon, they went right into “Dance Devil Dance.” Guitarists Johas Jarisby and Tim Ohrstrom, along with bassist Henrik Sandelin, all spun their hair in unison. With their theatrics and so many moving parts, Avatar is the type of band that if you look away for a second, you’re going to miss something. They closed out with “Smells Like a Freakshow” and “Hail the Apocalypse”
I love co-headliners because it’s fun to try and guess who the headliner headliner is that night!
With the raise of the curtain, we saw the In This Moment was up first. They don’t call lead singer Maria Brink “Mother” for nothing. She’s like a celestial goddess standing on her personal raised stage, with all the smoke and low light, under an altar. It’s all just so hypnotizing to watch. The Grammy Award-nominated band just released their latest album, Godmode, back in October of last year and they opened their set with “The Purge” from said album. With every few songs, Maria would walk off and come back with a new look perfectly matched to the theme of the song. After "Adrenized", the whole band left the stage. Moments later, Maria's voice could be heard over the speakers. "Tsk, Tsk, Tsk" she said. "Tell us! What would you like to hear?" The crowd knew exactly what she meant and all screamed, "Whore!" she then says, “What did you just call me?!” A large podium with the word “whore” on it was brought out to the center of the stage. Maria took her place at the top of the podium in her iconic dunce cap. Giant red and white balloons filled the air and confetti rained down as they closed out their set.
This was my 18th time seeing Ice Nine Kills, and no I will never get sick of them. I saw them the night before at the LA show, and so of course I had to do a one day roadtrip to Vegas to see them again. Every show that I've seen of theirs, they bring out something new and step up their game. During the set change, a giant red banner went up displaying a parental advisory warning. The banner read, "The following show has been approved for psychotic audiences only by the I.N.K Association of America.” Before the band took the stage, "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds played. After, the curtain dropped to reveal Ice Nine’s upgraded setup. A giant inflatable figure of Ice Nine’s leading suspect, The Silence, loomed from behind the drumset. They had projectors to the sides that had retro TVs with retro-looking “commercials” playing before every song, and random dismembered limbs scattered about. I always enjoy the chaos this band creates on stage because there are so many moving parts and so many layers.
You could see this show every night of this tour and catch something new or different every time.
During “Meat and Greet,” based off The Silence of the Lambs, they had a Hannibal Lecter wheeled out on stage, with a straight jacket and mask. He was placed by the drumkit for most of the song until the end. At the end, Hannibal broke free, took off the mask, and ate a security guard right in front of the barricade. It was a full-on 3-D horror movie happening in front of us. It only took me 18 times to finally hear them play one of my favorite songs of theirs, “Thank God It’s Friday.” Again, they totally brought the movie to life on stage by having Jason slaughter a whole crew of camp counselors and even had Jasons Mom come out. After the Silver Scream albums came out, I thought Ice Nine would only play songs off those with the occasional songs off “Every Trick In The Book” but this tour, they brought out a “deep cut” and played “The Greatest Story Ever Told” for the first time live since 2017. They also played their cover of “Walking on Sunshine” and “Nature of the Beast” which was its first time played live since 2019.
Ice Nine Kill’s Drummer Patrick Galante is taking a little break from touring for personal reasons but their photographer, Adam Reed, has been filling in this tour! Each night at the end of the show, they have an envelope labeled “The Kill” and every night it reads a different band member that Spencer gets to “Kill.” Tonight it was Adam! I saw guitarist Ricky Armellino “die” the night before so it was cool to see that they acually switch up the members every night.
The Kiss of Death Part 2 Tour has concluded but keep an eye out for some possible new INK music coming soon! ;)
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