Ice Nine Kills Unearth Hell or High Slaughter on New Film Soundtrack
ICE NINE KILLS have never been shy about turning horror into spectacle, but their latest move pushes that instinct into gloriously absurd new territory. With ‘Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)’, the band step into the greasy shadow of the supposedly long-lost glam metal outfit GRAVE DIGGLER, reviving a song tied to Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and rolling it out with an NSFW video that leans hard into the myth.
A fake-metal fever dream done properly
The hook here is not just the song itself, but the elaborate backstory wrapped around it. GRAVE DIGGLER are presented as a debauched relic of the Sunset Strip era, the kind of band that once rubbed shoulders with Poison, Mötley Crüe and W.A.S.P. before imploding under the usual cocktail of bad business, worse decisions and chemical excess.
That setup gives Ice Nine Kills plenty to play with. Spencer Charnas, already a master of horror-world building, folds himself into the joke by claiming the members of ICE NINE KILLS are the sons of GRAVE DIGGLER. It is knowingly ridiculous, and that is exactly why it works. The band are not just releasing another soundtrack cut; they are building a pulpy side-universe around it.
Tied to Ready or Not 2
The press release says the directing team behind Scream (2022) and Scream VI wanted to feature one of GRAVE DIGGLER’s “forgotten” songs in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. From there, the story spirals into legal disputes, family tension and a re-recorded version of ‘Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)’ landing in the film, including during an early scene and again over the closing credits.
Charnas is quoted as saying the song reopened a difficult relationship with his father, adding a weirdly emotional edge to what is otherwise a very tongue-in-cheek campaign.
A documentary is already on the way
The GRAVE DIGGLER bit is apparently not ending with one song. A documentary titled Laid to Rest: The Grave Diggler Story is also in the works, with Paul Soter of Super Troopers involved alongside director Myles Erfurth and Spencer Charnas.
The proposed interview list is stacked with genre and rock-world names, including Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Elijah Wood, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Stephen Pearcy, Matt Pinfield, Michael Starr, Jose Mangin, Dead Meat’s James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca, and both Sonny and Spencer Charnas. Whether you read that as commitment to the bit or a full-blown multimedia spiral probably depends on your tolerance for theatrical metal nonsense.
Ice Nine Kills keep pushing the horror-metal machine
Beyond the GRAVE DIGGLER concept, the release also serves as another reminder of how far ICE NINE KILLS have stretched their horror empire. The band’s recent years have reportedly included touring with Metallica, the gold certification of ‘A Grave Mistake’, soundtrack placements tied to Terrifier 3 and Scream 7, and a growing foothold inside horror culture well beyond the usual album-tour cycle.
That broader context matters. ICE NINE KILLS are at their best when they treat songs like events, and this latest release fits neatly into that formula. It is campy, overbuilt and knowingly stupid in exactly the right ways.
The legend of Grave Diggler lives again
The best part of the whole thing might be the commitment to the details. GRAVE DIGGLER’s fictional catalogue includes records like Fluoride with the Devil, Cavity Search, Snatch and Release and Just Busted, while their supposed answer to the Parental Advisory era was a sticker reading “Placental Advisory.” It is grubby, juvenile and pitched at precisely the frequency where glam-metal parody starts to feel affectionate rather than lazy.
Whether ‘Hell or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler Pt. 2)’ lands as a serious banger or a glorified joke, ICE NINE KILLS clearly understand that half the fun is in the framing. They are not just selling a track. They are selling a lost band, a family feud, a movie tie-in and an entire fake history with enough detail to make the gag stick.
