Ash and Ice

Formats and packaging

The album was made available as a CD – with a 20-page booklet with lyrics and album artwork – and as digital download.

A limited edition double LP was also made available. The LPs are coloured in blue and pink and packaged into a wide spine jacket with a gold foil imprint. The release also includes two fold-out posters, two printed inner sleeves and an exclusive lyric zine, with the first 250 orders signed by the band.

Promotion

The lead single off the album, "Doing It to Death", was released on March 1, 2016. It was accompanied by a music video directed by Wendy Morgan. The second single from the album, "Heart of a Dog", and an accompanying music video directed by Sophie Muller were released on April 18, 2016. "Siberian Nights" was released as the third single on May 24, 2016. A music video promoting the song was directed by American actor Giovanni Ribisi.

In support of the album, the band are touring the United States from March through June 2016. The Kills also performed in Mexico City on March 16, in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Toronto and Vancouver in May 2016, and at the Isle of Wight Festival in June. In July, played at the U-Park Festival in Kiev, Ukraine and at the Park Live Festival in Moscow, Russia, as well as the Off Festival in Katowice, Poland in August before returning to the U.S. in September and then back to Europe through October and November. They performed "Whirling Eye" on The Late Late Show with James Corden on the 21 October episode.

Critical reception

Ash & Ice received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 21 reviews. Writing for Exclaim!, Laura Sciarpelletti praised the band's "bare bones power technique".