Winter is coming, but Scott Ian is already back with a new installment of our series Bloodworks, where he goes behind-the-scenes to see (and personally experience) the incredible makeup and effects that go into some of the best, most impressive, goriest looking shows and movies going today. And nothing fits that description quite like HBO‘s blood-filled, death party Game of Thrones, because what would the Seven Kingdoms be without some White Walkers, Children of the Forest, and giants? It would just be exploding heads that’s what it would be. This is the first of two episodes from Ian’s visit to the set in Belfast, where he got an up-close look at the prosthetics and work required to bring George R.R. Martin‘s world to life, from makeup designer Barrie Gower. Besides getting a chance to wear Wun Wun’s (literally) giant, oversized hands, and learning about how The Hound got his burns and Shireen got her greyscale, Ian also got to see just how much work goes into making the Children of the Forest. Considering the actors are in full-body prosthetics it also explains why the show went away from casting actual children in the roles like it initially did, to adults with a little more time to actually, you know, be on set after hours and hours getting made up. And in case you didn’t realize just how insane it is to create an army of the undead and their blue-eyed icemen leaders, we also got a look at the amount of time and energy that was required to have the White Walkers show up at the hiding place of the Three-Eyed Raven with their zombie soldiers. Of course, you can’t have blood without something to stab and cut things with, so Ian also got to explore the craftsmanship and detail that goes into making the massive cache of weapons for the show. Like he said, there’s no set better prepared for an actual White Walker invasion than Game of Thrones. We do have two warnings for you, though: there is some NSFW language, and if you still aren’t

If you plan on stepping into the skin of a White Walker you need to be ready to tap into your raw aggression, and you need to be willing to channel all your energy towards destroying the very fabric of civilization as we know it. Fortunately, almost 35 years as a member of Anthrax is some pretty good real world preparation for donning those icy blue eyes. This latest installment of Bloodworks, our (NSFW) behind-the-scenes series dedicated to all things gory and gruesome in film and television, is part 2 of Scott Ian‘s visit to the Game of Thrones set in Belfast to meet with makeup designer Barrie Gower. In part 1 we got a look at the massive collection of weapons the show has amassed, learned how the many facial ailments (or head explosions) of characters come to life, and saw the amazing work that goes into making the giants and the Children of the Forest as real as any human living in King’s Landing. But this time around it was all about learning what it takes to transform someone from being a denizen of the world of the living into an ice general in the army of the dead, as Ian got into the makeup chair to become the first American White Walker. Forget the incredibly detailed, samurai-like armor the Others wear (mud from north of the wall just has a different look than mud found in the Seven Kingdoms), or even the awesome ice weapons they wield, the amount of prosthetics, with their unique bone structure as well as their flexibility, required for the full transformation means that the stay in the makeup chair isn’t a short one. (Really, a piece of dragonglass to the heart, or a fingernail under the eye, is just so much easier and faster.) You might think that Ian’s goatee would pose a problem in the White Walker creation process, but when it works as your signature look in your heavy metal band, it translates perfectly into your role as a terrifying monster. Besides getting to admire how just a single Other comes into being, Gower also explain