Body Count – Merciless
Release Date: 22nd November 2024
Label: Sony/Century Media
Bandcamp
Genre: Rap Metal, Thrash Metal, Groove Metal.
FFO: Rage Against the Machine, Biohazard, Suicidal Tendencies.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Body Count is a band that needs no introduction, so here’s just a brief tidbit: Ice-T started Body Count so his friend Ernie C. could have a creative outlet for his guitar. Now 30+ years later, after an album of the decade contender in Bloodlust and a more than adequate follow up in Carnivore, T and the gang have dropped their 8th album upon a world that might just need this kind of catharsis: Merciless
If there’s one thing that’s always present in a Body Count record, it’s anger. Anger and riffs. Bordering on thrash at points, groove metal through and through, Merciless feels like an album that was purposefully held until this point in the year, where emotions are at a fever pitch and a bit of metal might be just the medicine. Riffs over an ever escalating interrogation, representative of police brutality, pierce the speakers to introduce us back to the band after four years on opener Interrogation, while chaotic drums and bass driven beats pop from the speakers alongside T’s intense delivery on the title track. The group vocal of “Merciless” in the chorus is a dark, effective decision, an air of finality about it, as if an all powerful being is yelling out the word, manifesting it. In the background can be heard more brutality, someone going through hell, in a way akin to the one part in Down With The Sickness, though not as in your face, an emotional Ernie C. solo with a lot of fretwork takes us to the next chapter of our reality: Purge.
Immediately greeted by The Purge and its rules, the song rips straight into 80s thrash, T’s vocals slower than the music, as is always the case, but not hitting any less hard: the ‘screaming but not screaming’ yells from his voice just ooze anger and ferocity, while Ernie rips a solo a couple minutes in, absolutely shredding and raging into an entirely unexpected appearance for Corpsegrinder, instantly transforming the song into a Cannibal Corpse cut: that’s how hard these guys are playing.
Body Count has a tried and true way of doing things, they have for over thirty years, and it’s why they’re so revered: that and everyone loves Ice-T. But when T’s vocals match the musical pacing, or at least come close, the band enters a different level of intensity, as heard on Psychopath. Sinister in sound and scope, T’s vocals maintain a faster tempo, the chainsaw in the background instantly generating horror movie vibes, the groove moving us along while T turns into the titular psychopath as the song progresses: it’s still Ice-T, but his voice is a little higher, we’re hearing a different side of him, and this side sounds deranged. In keeping with the pacing changes, Live Forever finds T keeping the lyrics simple, allowing Ernie and the crew to shine through. One of the fastest tracks on the record, it finds Howard Jones of Killswitch fame lending his cleans and screams to the track, vitriolic and clean in the same breath, a treat for those many who may not have been expecting this.
Lyrically speaking, the album is vintage Body Count: politics, injustice, police brutality, the state of the world and its divisions, it’s all here, some of which has already been referenced. Though a bit cringe at first, referring to the two parties in gang terminology ultimately finds a place on Fuck What You Heard, the repetition of ‘Democrips and Bloodpublicans’ ultimately getting stuck in your head, while World War, you guessed it, tackles the idea of world wars. The lyrics match the music in intensity and quality, T never wasting his songs, as everything is said with a purpose, in this case that purpose is to reflect on the state of the world, the inevitable path towards World War, and the troubles within our own cities that ultimately lead to bigger problems.
It wouldn’t be a Body Count album without a cover, and for this one they’ve chosen one of the greatest songs of all time, Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. Not a cover in the strictest sense, where lyrically only a small portion of the song is used, the entire track finds Ernie nailing that rhythm and the emotions that ooze from the guitar, especially during the solos, while the chorus features a well done vocal manipulation, allowing the song to capture the essence of the original. An excellent homage to one of rock’s greatest, and all the more impressive given this is a band that covers Slayer and Motörhead with ease.
I don’t really know what more can be said about a Body Count album. Cliché though it may be, Body Count is the embodiment of “you know what you’re going to get.” They’re consistent, they’re groovy, they’re still angry, and they still slap. Ice-T is 66 years old, and the man sounds just as good as he did in the 90s. If you like Body Count, get this. If you’re pissed off at the world, at politics, at anything, and need a bit of musical catharsis, get this. It’s vintage Body Count with a modern flair, the lyrics as relevant as ever and the music as heavy as ever.
(4.5 / 5)
