Ice Nine Kills Transforms Christmas Classics into Nightmares with A Very Vicious Christmas

After turning Halloween into their favorite playground, Ice Nine Kills now set their sights on the year-end holidays. The American band has just unveiled A Very Vicious Christmas, an eight-track EP that reimagines several Christmas classics with a horror-flavored twist. Available now via Fearless Records, this macabre collection sprang from a collaboration with Universal and its event Halloween Horror Nights, with a guest of the moment: Art the Clown, the iconic figure from the Terrifier franchise!

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Included are the familiar melodies of “Jingle Bells”, “Carol Of The Bells”, “O Christmas Tree” and “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” that pass through the bloody hands of Spencer Charnas and his crew. The traditional lyrics give way to a darkly humorous and particularly gory wit, featuring mutilated bodies, broken bones, and references to the horror universes dear to the band. The EP also contains two versions of “Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy”, one performed with the full band, the other in an orchestral arrangement by Francesco Ferrini. A children’s choir even joins in this merry demolition on “O Christmas Tree.”

Produced by Spencer Charnas, Joe Occhiuti and Steve Sopchak, these eight tracks were initially envisioned to accompany Ice Nine Kills‘s collaboration with Universal Halloween Horror Nights. In Hollywood, they notably set the rhythm for the attraction Terror Tram Starring Art The Clown, in which the Terrifier character took over the famous Universal Studios lot to host his own Christmas celebration. The tracks also resonated in the clown-themed zone of the Orlando park.

“It’s a gift to be able to give our dear Psychos exactly what they asked for this season. We’re proud to collaborate with Halloween Horror Nights around our latest Art piece,” explains Spencer Charnas. The singer also invites fans to slide A Very Vicious Christmas into the stockings of their loved ones, whether they deserved diamonds or coal.

To accompany this release, Ice Nine Kills also unveiled Road Kill, a promotional stunt featuring nine fans and content creators aboard a mysterious bus bound for Universal Studios Hollywood. Their driver? Art the Clown himself. Between bottles filled with fake blood, ominous instructions and a coffin bag with suspicious movements, the trip culminated at the heart of the Terror Tram attraction. An experience captured in a video that offers a glimpse of this particularly wild collaboration.

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This new release naturally extends the relationship between Ice Nine Kills and the Terrifier universe, begun in 2024 with “A Work Of Art”, a track written for the franchise’s third film. The band thus continues its exploration of the bridges between music, horror cinema and video games. In 2026, it notably signed “Twisting The Knife” with McKenna Grace for Scream 7, a track that earned them their first No. 1 on the Active Rock Radio and Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay charts, as well as “Hell Or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)” for Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come and “Play Dead” for the tenth anniversary of Dead By Daylight.

But the celebrations don’t stop there. Ice Nine Kills are also preparing another major career milestone with their March In Silence tour, which will notably pass through La Seine Musicale in Paris on March 26, 2027.

Artwork and tracklisting for A Very Vicious Christmas