The Beauty Of The First Ice Nine Kills Album

Last Chance To Make Amends

It's no secret that I love everything about Ice Nine Kills' early music. I've always been a fan of badly produced emo music but I don't think I've ever heard anything that hit as hard as this whole album. While The Burning is another album I hold dear to my heart, it still doesn't compare to the first album, Last Chance To Make Amends. Some people don't really like this album, but their opinion is just wrong.

Just hearing the first song play gets me emotional. It's really simple though, only some news recordings being played over some simple piano and beats of some sort. I feel like it's a beautiful beginning, not just for the album, for the band as a whole. Ice Nine Kills has always been that spooky-horror band before even writing about books and movies.

The second song, Last Words was also feature on The Burning, which is understandable, the song is perfectly angsty to fit both albums.

Then there's Build A Bridge And Jump Off It. The title says basically everything you need to know. Spencer is angry, he's sad, and he's dealing with some mental issues. The tone of the song starts out simple and calm but soon grows more aggressive, as if the emotion is agitating him. He's going on asking repeatedly asking why he's alive.

After that, we have I Do And I Don't, this song hits hard after a break-up. The song perfectly captures the feeling of seeing your ex move on while you're still stuck in the past. The feeling of clinging onto them like your life depends on it.

The most simple song would have to be Chapter Two, it's only an instrumental but I still feel that it's important. It's a good transitional song after dealing with all those emotions.

Then there's my all-time favorite INK song, Murders and Acquisitions. Again, perfect for those angsty post-break-up feels. This time it's more angry. Spencer plans on killing this person in their sleep, so angry at them. He claims multiple times that it's their fault for doing this to him. I feel like there's not many songs that can really encapsulate that deep seething anger. That feeling of betrayal follows him in this song and he lets it all out. He's run out of good intentions, he's tired of seeing them with some other person. He hopes something horrible happens to them. There's nothing more real than this. This is by-far the most relatable song on this album.

Next we have the first of the Study Hall songs. This one is more aggressive than the other two. He's aggravated and depressed because this person is just so wrong about him when they were the problem the whole time. But he's still haunted by them despite how awful they are, they're always going to be there no matter how irrelevant they are.

The song after this, Cinder Blocks And Thank You Knots is a great song about a toxic relationship. They get drunk together, only lust after each other, there's no real love because they've broken the trust. Spencer acknowledges how he can't live in a relationship like this, even wishing death on his partner. He mentions multiple times how the relationship won't survive, it's only good when they're drunk and having make-up sex. It's nothing but a toxic cycle that repeats, and he has to burn the bridge. He'd rather die than do it.

The last song on the album is a big FUCK YOU to a family member, perhaps a parental figure? Family Unties is a great representative of how angry a kid can get at their parent(s) after how they've been treated like shit. It's angsty, it's angry, and just a big fat middle finger to said parent.

I recommend this album to anyone who likes under-produced-recorded-in-my-mom's-basement-while-crying type of music. It's truly a masterpiece and a great beginning to INK's career.

(Also YES, I know about The pop-pop-ska years I'll talk about it at some point)