THE DROP
Ice Nine Kills dropped "Play Dead" on June 26 — a full-on Dead by Daylight collaboration written with the game's composer Michel F. April for the franchise's 10th anniversary *, §. The video premiered during the anniversary livestream and features Tony Hawk, Devon Sawa, and Terrifier 3's Krsy Fox alongside digital Spencer Charnas getting chased through an abandoned car lot by the game's masked killers *, §.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Third single of 2026 after "Twisting the Knife" (Scream 7's official song, their first #1 at Active Rock Radio) and "Hell or High Slaughter" from Ready or Not 2 *, §, ¶
- Co-written with longtime Dead by Daylight composer Michel F. April; band worked on set with game creatives Mathieu Côté and Eric Pope §, ¶
- In-game Ice Nine Kills collection launched alongside the track, letting Dead by Daylight's 70 million players rep the band §, ¶
- Video references game lore including "sacrifices to the Entity" and features a bonus scene coming soon *
THE TAKE
Spencer Charnas calls it "a collision of hooks, horror, and total chaos," * and working with the actual game composer instead of just slapping a horror theme on a track shows they're treating this like an actual extension of the Dead by Daylight universe, not a cash-grab. Tony Hawk showing up makes sense when you remember his games married music and gaming culture two decades before this — and Charnas bonding with him over punk rock and The Naked Gun is the most on-brand thing this band has done all year ¶.