Ice Nine Kills - Every Trick in the Book (2015)^{Release ID: 9834}

It's gotta be an amazing feat to adequately adapt classic literature and revamp them for a modern metalcore album. The immense mystique to too difficult to compare. First you read the novel, then you watch its film adaptation once it comes out, and you're so tempted to see find out what other possible way to adapt a novel without having to write a full story or act it out. Thankfully, you don't have to make a film to retell a great novel. Music is an underrated capability to adapt great stories into greater modern works of art. Ice Nine Kills has done every trick in those books to make the haunting books-turned-into-songs album, Every Trick in the Book!

Back in the 2000s, Ice Nine Kills was originally a hybrid of ska, pop punk, and post-hardcore. In the 2010s, their sonic identity became fast theatrical metalcore. The hard work making this masterpiece really paid off, causing the band to headline a couple Warped Tours and currently sit in the main roster of Fearless Records after years in the self-released underground. With this album, you get to hear the best literature you had to read in middle school, composed into enjoyable new-generation metalcore.

The story begins in an Animal Farm, the inspiration for "The Nature of the Beast". A circus ringleader (lead vocalist Spencer Charnas) invites you to the act that opens the album. Spencer and co-frontman Justin DeBlieck sing the evocative chorus for the first time, as you begin to realize that the audience aren't people, they're animals! As Spencer begins his screaming, the ringleader reveals himself to be a wild boar, and you've been tricked into a trap by the animal rebellion. Throughout the twisting and turning epic chaos, the animals chase you all over the farm, determined to seize control and destroy any humans who get in their way. A compelling start to the album! You manage to outrun the animals and escape the farm, then you find a little girl who looks lost ("Communion of the Cursed"). Right when you're about to ask if she needs help, the heaviness begins when you find out that the girl is possessed by a demon! The devil is in the frightening details of this track. The unclean screams segue into a strong clean chorus and a punishing breakdown. During all that, while being chased by the demon girl, you find a couple priests in a church who offer to help exorcise the demon. You accept the offer and despite the demon-girl's (screaming) demand, "I CANNOT BE CRUCIFIED!!!", they crucify her and exorcise the demon out of her. You thank the priests and continue your journey with the girl who's now back to normal by your side. Next location: Transylvania ("Bloodbath & Beyond")! The band puts a unique twist into the story; Dracula is a young brooding vampire similar to Edward from Twilight though slightly younger and the girl's "boyfriend". You'll see why I added quotes to that last word in a second. The girl and young Dracula kiss each other, the girl being unaware that it's actually a "crimson kiss" to poison the girl to death. The superb drumming travels through the great choruses and ravaging near-end breakdown. During that breakdown, you get chased by Dracula but you outrun him and escape his castle.

Then you find a plane wreck with dead bodies...or ARE they dead?! ("The Plot Sickens") The vocals switch from unclean to clean, from low to high, in rapid pace. The "dead bodies" wake up and are actually cannibal zombies threatening to eat living humans, all repeated the line "We'll make it out alive", even though they're half-dead. You manage to outrun the zombies and make it out alive. Then you end up in a medieval kingdom and find one of two "Star-Crossed Enemies", Juliet, who tells you that she wants herself and Romeo to "make like shadows and disappear". Juliet asks you to find some crimson blood to add to a potion drink to hypnotize Romeo into falling in love with her. Fortunately, you have some crimson blood stained on your sleeve and let it drip on her drink. Unfortunately, you forgot that's the same blood from Dracula's poisonous "crimson kiss". So when Juliet gives Romeo the crimson potion drink, he dies. Heartbroken, Juliet takes his dagger and stabs herself to join him in death. Right then, their feuding families were watching the whole scene, and they blame you for their deaths and chase you out of town. After escaping that town, you meet a nice man Jekyll who suddenly has an evil personality, Hyde. "Me, Myself & Hyde" is one of the most entertaining and struggle-focused songs in this album. You ask Jekyll what's wrong, and he says "Go ask Alice," and Hyde shouts "AND GO AWAY!!" You easily find Alice in no time flat. "Alice" features some of the best clean singing from Spencer Charnas he has ever done, while still doing some screaming. Alice is a teenage drug addict who ran away from home to find Doctor Jekyll who knows her well who can help cure her drug addiction. However, Jekyll completed his transformation into Hyde, but he was still able to cure her. Alice and Hyde thank you for the help, and you continue your journey.

Now you're in a frightening war-zone with a girl hiding in a bunker. "The People in the Attic" is a dark melodeath composition based on The Diary of Anne Frank, with strong driving guitar groove and emotional clean/screaming vocals in the perspective of Anne Frank. The girl named Anne Frank is suffering from the typhus epidemic, and she asks you to take her diary writings and publish them. Then she succumbs to the typhus and dies, her last words being an inspirational line, "The path that God has lit grows ever darker though my faith goes further now." You run out of the war, narrowly dodging bullets. "Tess-Timony" is a ballad that initially starts with piano and strings, then before guitar soar in towards the end aside haunting passages that look back in your journey so far ("And for this, I was willing to die, it was all I could do to survive"). Sorry, no "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" action here, too sexual. You finally make it back to your home town, safe and sound...or so you thought! "Hell in the Hallways" closes the album with gore and chaos. As the band uses the last of their guitar energy, you find a bunch of dead bodies and a living girl named Carrie who uses her telekinetic powers to mentally stop your heart. The last thing you hear when you're at the brink of death is Carrie cackling, "WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?!?" To be continued...

This. Is. INCREDIBLE!! Ice Nine Kills has made a remarkable accomplishment. They traveled through time to dig up compelling written works of literature and composed songs based on them, creating a perfect adverse effect and a promising future for both literature and music. But the greatest Ice Nine Kills show of all would come in 2018, when they released the cinematic The Silver Scream. But besides that, Every Trick in the Book is a glorious masterpiece. Forget your middle school summer reading lists, listen to this monstrously well-written album instead!

Favorites: "The Nature of the Beast", "Bloodbath & Beyond", "Me, Myself & Hyde", "Alice", "Hell in the Hallways"