Continuing their upward trajectory in recent years with some career defining releases, Body Count, the L.A metal rap group headed up by the legendary Ice-T continue to cave heads in with new album ‘Merciless’. Their winning formula of Sabbath, Suicidal and Cypress Hill is still serving them well 30 plus years on from their inception. Ernie C, the man behind the riffs, seems to revel in busting out stomping hardcore infused riffs, giving the Ice-man a platform to tee off on. The first example of this comes with ‘Purge’ a hate filled, sample filled anthem that develops into a churning riff, that half of the beatdown hardcore bands out there, wish they’d written. Lyrically it talks about the movie of the same name and how Ice might apply it, if he were given 12 hours free reign and they rope in Cannibal Corpse’s George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fischer for some vocal too. Sing it now “Smashing faces, Smashing brains. Drinking blood from your sweet veins” It’s beautiful.

Body Count have proudly used there Slayer influence as a badge of honor in the past and the opening riff of ‘Psycopath’ is something, that the late great Jeff Hanneman would surely approve of. The track rattles along at a typical mid tempo head nodder, with Joe of Fit For An Autopsy, adding some very heavy throat action. Ice dives into politics with ‘Fuck What You Heard’ a track that leans more into the hip-hop side of Body Count’s arsenal. T compares the current political scene in America to the Bloods v Crips feud of L.A dubbing both parties the “Bloodpublicans and Democrips” Never ones to shy away from a cover, the band have stepped up to the plate with a Pink Floyd cover, this time around, featuring none other than David Gilmour himself. Who saw that coming?

They’ve reworked the classic ‘Comfortably Numb’ and made it their own, but ultimately it’s a low point on the album for sure. It’s back to business with ‘Lying Motherfucka’ which sees Ernie C gargling out a very dirty riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Korn album. We head into old school hardcore punk territory as Max Cavalera jumps on vocals for ‘Drug Lords.’ Echoing much of the world at the moment, Ice T takes on the government once more with ‘World War’ asking the question where exactly is it going to happen? ‘Mic Contract’ finishes things off  and is a track designed to show off Ice’s rap skills (in case there was any doubt). Doe she still have it. You bet your sweet ass he does.

A few killer tracks aside, Body Count always existed just underneath the radar, but with 2017’s ‘Bloodlust’ the band seemed somewhat invigorated, delivering an album of the year, at least in these eyes. ‘Carnivore’ continued this trend and I’m happy to report that they are still on top form. ‘Merciless’ is absolutely everything you could possibly want from a Body Count album and while U.S politics may be in a bit of upheaval, it’s sure providing great fodder for Ice T and the boys…Chris Andrews

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