Body Count’s latest album, Merciless, has been released November 22. The album title, Merciless, creates a gloomy atmosphere that culminates in a chorus of Slayer-like thrash. “I’ve only got one life to live / I got no more fucks to give,” Ice-T emphasizes his point.
“We had a string of one-word albums,” says Ice-T. “We had Bloodlust; we had Carnivore and that word, Merciless, just bumped into my head. It’s really about that point where you can’t take any more and you’re done. Like the song says, ‘I got no more fucks to give.’ When you push a person to that point, it’s too late to ask for mercy. I was watching a lot of movies like Hostel, a lot of cruel torture movies, when I was writing the album, and I was like, ‘These people are cold-blooded.’ That’s what triggered that whole energy.”
He continues, “We’d just won the Grammy (2021’s Best Metal Performance’ for Bum-Rush) so we were on a real high, but it was still pretty difficult to grind another album out. I needed time. When you’ve released an album— having written maybe 20 songs, of which 12 make it—you’re all out of ideas. And you don’t want to rehash those ideas again. But once we got going, we got it done.”
Jay Scorsese-directed video “Merciless” recreated the shocking Merciless album cover. Ice-T plays a torturous surgeon going to work on a KKK member—as if it were a scene from a horror film. The track has got some serious Black Sabbath vibes with the grinding guitar riff. Scorsese also directed the video for previous single “Psychopath,” another homage to horror and splatter films.
“Interrogation Interlude” is definitely an interrogation with strong chords and Ice-T’s voice cutting through. “The Purge,” featuring Corpsegrinder, dives straight into deep metal riffs and guttural vocals. “Fuck What You Heard” delves into the gangs and the hypocrisies in the government. It’s pretty deep stuff, and I am here for it. My absolute favorite is their cover of “Comfortably Numb.” Ice-T and Body Count deliver an epic flow of instrumentals and vocals on this track. The whole album is brilliant.
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