By Jonny Bakes
I’ve got a bit of a confession to make… I snoozed on Body Count for far too long. For years I’d written them off as “probably just another rap/metal crossover group” and never really gave them a chance. A few years ago I finally saw the light and realized that not only is their music incredible, but Ice-T’s cutting social commentary goes incredibly deep making each song relatable and thought-provoking. Needless to say, when I caught wind of the new album, I made sure I was at the front of the queue to get a listen and see just how ‘Merciless’ Ice-T and the gang can be…
‘Merciless’ follows on the heels of 2020’s ‘Carnivore’ and much like its predecessor there are some cracking guest artists making an appearance on this album, with one of the biggest names in rock even lending his talents (more on that later). It also marks the continuation of Body Count’s maturity into a band that is seriously grabbing attention across the globe. Where the self-titled 1992 album now seems a bit rough and ready, ‘Merciless’ sounds like a band who have well and truly found their niche and are gathering more fans to hear Ice-T’s powerful messages.
You can tell that Ice-T has a really keen interest in current affairs and carries some very critical views on the state of the world (many of which are certainly well deserved) and he lays this down in his rhymes that mesh with the thrash metal stylings composed by bandmate Ernie-C to produce something that’s almost timeless. The combination of rap and metal may have been big in the ’90s and early 2000s but Body Count shows that this combination is still 100 per cent relevant and remains a really powerful vehicle to provide some seriously hard hitting music – in sound as well as message.
‘Merciless’ does exactly that, it pulls no punches and hits you right in the face from the outset. It begins with a skit (remember those from the 90s rap albums?) about torture to set the tone, then launches into Slayer-influenced rips and lyrical themes that will cause you to take a long hard look at yourself and what you are willing to tolerate in life. If you’re familiar with Body Count, then this album is exactly what you would expect, it takes everything that made ‘Carnivore’ great and then steps it up another notch just to be sure. If you’re not familiar… well, remember the collaboration between Anthrax and Public Enemy? Well it’s a bit like that but a whole load better!
The pièce de résistance of this album has to be the powerful reimagining of ‘Comfortably Numb’. A song that was so well written that not only did it catch the attention and receive the endorsement from David Gilmour, but he also insisted on providing his guitar skills to this track. It’s really difficult to describe just how great this song is, but I’ll give it a go… It loosely follows the structure of the Pink Floyd original, with the bassline remaining constant throughout to distinguish the verses and chorus. On top of that you have David Gilmour pretty much freeforming a solo that ebbs and flows through the whole song – so you’ve got a pretty solid base to start from there. But then the power really comes with Ice-T rapping his way through the verses rattling off deep injustices in the world with lines like “hope for humanity? I don’t think there ever was” and “how accepting of all the bullshit we have become, this whole world has become comfortably numb” hitting home with precision every time. The chorus is a closer fit to the original, but the focus remains on how we as a collective are now comfortably numb to what is going on around us. If you come away from this and don’t find yourself taking a long hard look in the mirror then I’m afraid you’ve completely missed the point. This could quite possibly be Body Count’s and even Ice-T’s greatest work to date.
While ‘Comfortably Numb’ really stands out, it’s not the only track that grabbed my attention. The fantastic ‘Fuck What You Heard’ compares American political rivalry to LA’s gang warfare by referring to the two political parties as “Democrips and Bloodpublicans” and points very clearly at the increasing severity of the rivalry between the two factions in the run up to the 2024 US Elections, where it is no longer enough to simply have differing views – Americans are acting against their fellows based solely on political views.
There’s also ‘Purge’ which pays homage to the famous film series where all crime is legal for 12 hours, including soundbites from the movie. This track features none other than Cannibal Corpse’s “Corpsegrinder” and delivers a punishingly brutal depiction of events during a purge. I’m sure there’ll be another film to add to the series soon, and if this track doesn’t make it into the soundtrack then it will be absolutely criminal!
In case you haven’t gathered by the way I’ve gushed my way through this review, I fucking love this album. In fact I would go so far as to say that ‘Merciless’ is a modern day masterpiece. An album where the lyrics are as hard hitting as the music is always going to strike a chord with me, and I think that Ice-T is a real master of scathing social commentary.
If, like me, you’ve snoozed on Body Count, or you formed your opinion on them based solely on their ’90s releases then I strongly urge you to listen to this and re-evaluate your opinion. Body Count have really hit their stride since their resurgence with ‘Manslaughter’ in 2014, and have continued an upward trend ever since marking ‘Merciless’ as their career peak, for now…
There have been plenty of recent calls for Body Count to make a return to Bloodstock, and I’m certainly echoing that as the power of ‘Merciless’ really needs to be experienced by 20,000 baying metalheads in a field!
- ‘Merciless‘ is out now.
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