I can’t help it saying how excited I got when I received the email with Body Count and their newest release “Merciless.” After, Body Count’s debut album and self-tittled album “Body Count,” an album which words can even begin to tell what it means to Metal music. Aside from the all biases and all the prejudice the album was, without any doubt, a masterpiece from the 1990’s an epoch where Metal music had to reinvent itself in order to survive. I still remember the day a dear late friend of mine brought the album and we started to listen to it. My first impression was “What the hell is this”? I had a small idea who Ice-T was. Well, I mean, I knew he was a rapper. Period. My friend, who was a bit more informed than I was, told me a little bit of his history. Long story short, I ended up recording all the tracks from the album in my cassette – do you my dear children of the night know what a cassette is? We loved the album so much that “Evil D*ck” was one the covers we used to play in our gigs. We considered playing “Cop Killer,” but we unanimously realized it wouldn’t be the healthier thing to do, if you know what I mean.
Ok, then. Now about “Merciless” Body Count’s eighth full length which I’ll tell you right now is a very different album from what I’m used to. Of course, the first thing I did when I started to listen to it was to compare it with “Body Count.” That would be the natural thing from someone who knew the album and, for many uncountable reasons, didn’t listen to any other album. I mean, I did, but I didn’t like them.
I’ll begin with a very famous cover Body Count decided to play here. I have to admit this was a very bold decision because to cover a song like this one a band has to have balls. As I said many times, a band has two ways of covering a song. The first is to cover it spotlessly without any difference from the original. The other is to redo it from start to finish. Body Count opted for the second with the very well-known, and beloved, Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” Well, I mean, that isn’t much the truth. Wisely Body Count opted to maintain the best thing from the song which are the guitars. Because of that the song begins with one of the most iconic guitar solos in the history of Rock music. It changed the game because everything else is completely different from the original, except for the guitars. The outcome, well, was David Gilmour loved it so much that he invited himself to playing in it. Wow!
The album commences with a Body Count tradition that is Ice-T’s speeches with his lousy language – hahahahahaha the dude has the lousiest of all. I wonder if he kisses his wife and kids with that mouth. Initially I had a shock with all the electronic effects and all. I admit I didn’t like it. It gave me that bad impression of a band that is trying so hard to update its music, a thing that life has proven not to be so effective. Album tittle “Merciless” took this impression out. The track put the album on the right track – no pun intended. But it’s “Purge” the one that won me. Body Count here a different facete from previous albums. It’s more modern Metal with big guitars, but still Metal. By the one, the guitars save the day from where I’m standing. The way I see it Ice-T and Body Count decided to forget their rap roots and dove into a more updated feature. This made the album heavier. I feel obliged to agree with that. Maybe for a diehard old fan like me this might sound outrageous, but I have to say it isn’t bad. Just different. Well, bands do evolve. Sometimes not the way fans would like, but they they do evolve.
Interestingly, “Merciless” has some important guest appearences, a thing that wasn’t the rule to the band. First of all, “Purge” with George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher; then “Psychopath” with Joe Bad, the too Industrial Metal “Live Forever” with Howard Jones, and, finally “Drug Lords” with Max Cavalera. I guess that tells a little about the album.
I guess I didn’t find “Merciless” “Body Count” worth, however it’s a damn good album. I’ll admit there are many things that remain the same and they are the ones that save the day. On the other hand, the news are a piece of the required movement artists do need from time to time. C’est la vie…
Body Count “Merciless” will be released on November 22nd via Century Media Records.
Track Listing:
- Interrogation (Interlude)
- Merciless
- Purge (feat. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher)
- Psychopath (feat. Joe Bad)
- F*ck What You Heard
- Live Forever (feat. Howard Jones)
- Do or Die
- Comfortably Numb
- Lying MF
- Drug Lords (feat. Max Cavalera)
- World War
- Mic Contract
Watch “Merciless” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!