Ice Nine Kills (Creeper. The Devil Wears Prada)
Ice Nine Kills (Creeper. The Devil Wears Prada)
The Hydro – Glasgow
09/12/2025
Review by Jon Deaux
Ice Nine Kills at the Hydro in Glasgow felt like going through a haunted house I’d already been dragged through a dozen times, only this time the walls smelled faintly of vape juice and overpriced nachos. The night opened with a tape of Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’ bleeding out of the PA-a warning I should have listened to, rather than trying to act brave in front of people twice my size. Glasgow crowds don’t scare easily, but I do, so naturally, the band kicked things off with ‘Meat & Greet,’ all meat, very little greeting, and enough theatrics to remind me I probably should’ve updated my will.
I’ll give them this much: it must have been a very expensive production. Fog machines were coughing up more smoke than I ever managed in my teenage bedroom, and somewhere around ‘Funeral Derangements,’ I remembered these guys treat horror tropes like sacred scripture. The audience roared. I flinched. My drink was trembling like we were in Jurassic Park, only with more eyeliner and fewer scientific credentials.
But as the setlist grew, I did start to wonder if maybe I should be ‘Hip Top Be Scared.’ There’s something unnerving about a band so committed to murder ballads that you start checking the exits. I kept thinking some masked extra might leap out and slash ticket holders for “immersion.” No such luck. Probably cut for budget reasons.
At the beginning of ‘Stabbing in the Dark’, I got a sharp poke in the ribs – turned out that was just someone trying to get past me to film, on their phone. Terrifying either way. ‘Wurst Vacation’, predictably, made me hungry rather than horrified, which I doubt was the intended response. Maybe I’m desensitised, or maybe Horror-Core Metal just needs more actual risk these days. Something real, like malfunctioning pyros, or a reasonable bar price.
And then, because irony is a performance art, they segued into a cover of Katrina and The Waves hit single “Walking on Sunshine” (taken from the American Psycho soundtrack album). I didn’t know whether to laugh or run. The Hydro briefly morphed into a horror-themed wedding reception before sliding back into ‘Rainy Day’, like nothing weird had happened.
The middle stretch included ‘The Great Unknown,’ ‘Ex-Mørtis,’ and a heartfelt Bosstones cover (‘The Impression That I Get’). At this point in the set, my initial nerves had eased up a bit, and I was able to enjoy things more. Clearly, the band loves its costume changes, and I can appreciate the effort—though standing for two hours isn’t necessarily my favourite thing in the world. The crowd seemed to be having a generally good time, and that’s enough.
Things picked up again with ‘A Grave Mistake,’ either the title of a song or my internal monologue for attending. By ‘The Laugh Track,’ though, I was anything but laughing, though the theatrics tried hard-fake blood, stage screams, the usual metal Halloween carnival. Somewhere around “The Shower Scene,” I caught myself actually enjoying the melodrama; it annoyed me deeply.
‘Welcome to Horrorwood’ came across like a blockbuster movie trailer I’d seen one too many times: all glossy and loud, before ‘IT Is The End’ wrapped the main set in a bow soaked with nostalgia, gore, and theatrical camp. The crowd loved it.
Of course, for the encore, we got ‘The American Nightmare,’ plus ‘A Work of Art’ featuring Hannah Greenwood (from main support band Creeper) who was goth-charming enough to make me forget that I’m supposed to be unimpressed. Art The Clown made an appearance in Tartan and performed an impromptu Bagpipe solo. I shrugged, pretended I’d seen better, and tried not to look emotionally touched in public.
As the audience were leaving the venue, there were cries of “THAT WAS KILLER!” Maybe it was. I’m numb. I scare easy, but nothing seems to get under my skin anymore. Maybe that’s the real horror-you can blast me with chainsaws, costumes, and blood-splatter theatrics, and all I can think of is how long it’s going to take to get a taxi in the rain.
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