Over 50 years in, metalheads are pretty hard to shock. And we'll admit, between GWAR's bloody on-stage executions, Alice Cooper's nightly beheadings, Rammstein's penis canon and countless other mental on-stage props, we thought we'd seen it all. But then Ice Nine Kills bring out horror icon Art The Clown, who proceeds to torch a baby doll and swing the charred corpse overhead by its umbilical cord. Now, we've seen everything.
This is Ice Nine Kills fourth time in the UK since the release of 2021's The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood, their first as an arena band and they pass the test with flying colours (provided those colours are all shades of red). The horror-obsessed metalcore crew have long had the theatricality and mad production that has made modern metal so vibrant, but even if you've caught them on the last few tours, the A Work Of Art run feels like a serious step up.
