From Horrorwood With Love

 

From Horrorwood With Love

February marks the 45th anniversary of My Bloody Valentine, a Canadian slasher so gruesome (especially by early 1980s standards!) that the MPAA forced them to leave several minutes on the cutting room floor. INK’s “Take Your Pick” is appropriately brutal. Arguably the heaviest track on The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, the song boasts the distinctive death metal growl of guest vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, frontman for Florida’s legendary Cannibal Corpse. 

“When I was writing ‘Take Your Pick,’ I just pictured myself at the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts, at a Hatebreed or Acacia Strain show,” Spencer recalls. “And My Bloody Valentine was the perfect movie for this song because it’s so vicious and mean-spirited. I just love it.” 

Released on February 11, 1981, My Bloody Valentine adopted the popular calendar-related slasher-movie title tradition, following Black Christmas (1974), Halloween (1978), and Friday the 13th (1980). 

In a Canadian mining town, Valentine’s Day partiers are stalked and killed by “The Miner.” The identity of the killer is kept secret until the film’s gruesome conclusion. Quentin Tarantino once told Entertainment Weekly that My Bloody Valentine may be his all-time favorite slasher film. 

The giddily gruesome animated music video for “Take Your Pick” was directed and animated by Dewald de la Rey, from a script by the director and Spencer, with sound design by Joe Occhiuti. 

“The song has my favorite lead-up to a breakdown we’ve ever done,” Spencer said shortly before the 2021 release of The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood. “It’s sugary sweet, almost like a Disney cartoon. It goes from the campiest part we’ve done into the most brutal we’ve done.” 

"To pay tribute to one of the most vicious slashers of the 1980s, we knew we had to cook up a video and musical number with only two things in mind — brutality and poor taste. We are honored to have the legendary Corpsegrinder providing his signature vocal assault, which will hopefully disembowel the listener. With so many ways to die this Valentine’s Day, take your pick…”