Horror-metal innovators Ice Nine Kills are back with The Great Unknown, a bold and genre-bending new single and video that blends dystopian sci-fi with a cinematic twist. Leaning heavily into The Matrix for inspiration, the band delivers a disorienting plunge into a simulated world of uncertainty and illusion.
The Great Unknown expands on the band’s signature style, blending sweeping cinematic soundscapes with their signature melodic intensity. The track pushes Ice Nine Kills into new sonic territory while holding onto the precision, polish, and sharp-edged humor that have come to define their musical universe. In the accompanying video, viewers are dropped into a distorted alternate reality, where perception is constantly shifting, and the boundary between control and chaos is paper-thin.
“Will you wake up, press play and follow the white rabbit into The Great Unknown or choose the blissful ignorance of The Matrix? Red pill or blue pill. The choice is yours!”
The release comes after weeks of mounting online speculation surrounding frontman Spencer Charnas and his increasingly strange behavior on social media. What seemed at first like a marketing stunt quickly spiraled into viral chaos, with fans and critics analyzing every odd post. The internet buzz reached new levels after Roy Merkin — a recurring antagonist in the band’s lore — delivered an unhinged rant during a panel at last year’s Silver Scream Convention. Some believe Charnas has been replaced by an AI double, though the band has remained silent on the matter.
Charnas added fuel to the fire with a surreal, corporate-speak statement: “The Great Unknown optimises aggression and melody in a format our core user base consistently engages with. This audio file represents a genre expansion protocol, targeting action and sci-fi verticals proven effective via cross-platform sentiment analysis. The Great Unknown is designed to seamlessly interface with current simulation conditions, as categorical boundaries between fact and fiction, organic and synthetic, continue to experience accelerated erosion.”
The video for The Great Unknown includes the debut of Joel David Moore (Avatar, Dodgeball, Grandma’s Boy) in the band’s ever-expanding fictional world, known as the INKverse. His character appears to be the only one with answers to the simulation’s strange logic—like how much a t-shirt costs in a digital dreamscape. Returning to the video are horror veterans Terry Kiser (Weekend at Bernie’s, Friday the 13th Part VII) and Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2).
Coinciding with the single’s release is a fresh drop of the band’s exclusive Nightmare On The Ninth merch line, a monthly collection that continues to captivate their cult fanbase.
The launch of The Great Unknown also marks the end of a massive two-year global trek, which saw Ice Nine Kills perform in stadiums alongside Metallica as part of the M72 world tour. They also recently wrapped their headline Silver Scream-A-Thon tour, treating fans to full performances of The Silver Scream and The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood on alternating nights.
Ice Nine Kills will hit the road again for their Hell of a Summer headline tour in August, joined by Dayseeker, Kim Dracula, The Funeral Portrait, and Mest on select dates. The tour will wrap with the fourth edition of their fan-favorite horror/music hybrid event, Silver Scream Con.
In the world of Ice Nine Kills, fiction and reality blur, and in The Great Unknown, even the glitch feels real.
