ICE NINE KILLS Frontman SPENCER CHARNAS: Touring With METALLICA Was 'Some Of The Most Incredible Experience Of My Life'

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, ICE NINE KILLS frontman Spencer Charnas spoke about what it was like for him and his bandmates to tour stadiums around the world with METALLICA in 2023, 2024 and 2025. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was amazing, man. If you go back to my love of music since I was a little kid — you got NIRVANA and you got METALLICA, and those were two of the bands that really got me into wanting to play guitar and wanting to learn how to play, either [NIRVANA's] 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' or [METALLICA's] 'Master Of Puppets' or something like that. So I'd always been a huge fan of theirs. I went to see them in '97 with my dad. We went to the Boston Garden on — I think it must have been one of the 'Load' album cycles. Yeah. The concert blew my mind. I can close my eyes and visualize being there; I remember it so vividly.

"It's kind of funny because I went to that show, and not too far after I went to see 'Scream'," Spencer recalled. "So it was like my love of horror being birthed as well as my love of, of metal. So getting the call to do that, the first show in Vegas, which was just one show at Allegiant [Stadium in 2022], if it all ended there, it would've been incredible. And then just getting the call [to do] more and more and more. And then to do the full world tour was incredible. The band and the crew and their whole team treated us great. And it was some of the most incredible experience of my life."

Speaking specifically about the "M72" tour's in-the-round stage design that relocated the famed METALLICA Snake Pit to center stage, Spencer said: "It took us a little while to get our sea legs, especially with a stage like that that's so unusual. It's like a big donut. And I think the first few times I was, like, 'Man, I'm getting winded.' I'm trying to run around this thing. 'Cause you're at a stadium. You're, like, 'Wow, I gotta really put on this show. There's so many people here, I gotta work 150 percent of my energy.' But what you realize is the video monitors, when you're in that vast, that large scale of a venue, they do a lot of the work for you. So you don't have to run around like a crazy person. Smaller steps can sometimes play bigger on camera."

Asked if the guys from METALLICA gave him and his ICE NINE KILLS bandmates any advice, Spencer said: "I remember talking to [METALLICA frontman] James [Hetfield] one of the first days. He goes, 'You guys figure out how to use the stage yet?' I was, like, 'Not really.' He was, like, 'Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out myself.' But, yeah, they're pros. And they still sound and put on such a fantastic show."

On the topic of whether he ever gets stage fright, Spencer said: "Sometimes. It's funny — sometimes it's not the biggest shows that give you stage fright, but sometimes the smaller, intimate ones. When you're used to playing in stadiums or arenas, and then you go to a smaller one, you're, like, 'I'm kind of a little nervous.' But once the first song kicks in and kids are singing the words, you forget all about it."

Charnas previously discussed the METALLICA touring experience during a January 2024 interview with Mike Hsu of the 100 FM The Pike radio station. He said at the time: "Anytime anyone mentions it when I'm doing an interview, and I'm not B.S.ing here, I get chills. Because it takes me back to when I first saw METALLICA, which was, I guess it would have been the Fleet Center [in Boston] in '97; it just switched over from the Garden a few years before, I think. And I remember that concert so vividly. My dad took me to it. They were, if memory serves, I think they were on the 'Load' or the 'Reload' album cycle, and it feels like that concert was a week ago. I remember the way that Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] came out over onto the stage, and he was drinking a beer, and they had this, like, pyrotechnic kind of, like, accident, but it was part of the show. One of the crew members, I remember, fell down and was hung by his like feet by a wire and everyone was, like, 'Oh my god.' But it turned out it was all part of the show."

Spencer continued: "They were one of those seminal bands for me. They made me, along with NIRVANA, wanna learn how to play guitar riffs. And so when we got that call to be on a few shows at first back in 2022, getting that call a few months later, 'Hey, do you wanna do the whole world tour with us?' I mean, for someone who grew up on that kind of music and METALLICA being the pinnacle of that, it's such an honor. And I still have to kind of pinch myself every time we show up at one of those stadiums and realize, 'I'm not just going to see them. We're on the show.' And they've been so nice to us. They come into the locker room and say 'what's up' to us. And they're really sort of showing us the way of how, when you're coming up, you take bands out, and take the bands out that you think are cool, and you treat them great. And we've learned a lot from them. And we can't thank them enough, and also thank all of their crew and their whole team. They've just been so accommodating. And also thank you to our fans who keep coming out to those shows, to see us play with METALLICA. I see so many INK shirts in that crowd. It's just a huge honor."

This past February, ICE NINE KILLS released a new single, "Twisting The Knife", taken from the soundtrack of horror blockbuster "Scream 7" and featuring one of the film's stars, Mckenna Grace. The track was accompanied by a high-production music video, and it featured Roger L. Jackson, the voice of the iconic antagonist Ghostface in the "Scream" series, as well as franchise star David Arquette.

In March, ICE NINE KILLS released a 1980s-style glam rock single, "Hell Or High Slaughter (Grave Diggler: Pt. 2)", under the guise of spoof band GRAVE DIGGLER.