Year: 2020
Total Time: 39:25
Label: Century Media
The multitalented person called Ice-T and his barely legal team called BODY COUNT are finally back again, angrier than ever! With almost 30 years of career on their backs, the need to have them with us is bigger than ever. Surely this band looks like is a way of taking out all this anger of his as well, otherwise I am pretty sure he would go out in the streets and make his lyrics become a reality. Social injustice, useless state violence, racism and the likes are presented here once again and criticized mercilessly while their musical turn to more hardcore tunes that started in 2014 with “Manslaughter” and continued in the 2017 album “Bloodlust” is here too, with the assistance of top guests like Riley Gale from POWER TRIP, Jamey Jasta from HATEBREED and Amy Lee from EVANESCENCE who do a great job where they are doing their parts.
So, the album starts with the self-titled track which is one of the best and grabs you straight by the neck while “Point the finger” with Riley Gale that comes next continues the smashing without mercy. Next is “Bum-Rush”, which is the first single of the album and reminds the old days before we get one more cover (like the previous album where they cover SLAYER) to the more than classic tune “Ace of Spades” vas a tribute to their long time Lemmy. This cover goes without comments, we love it whoever plays it ! Next, we have one, I’d say re-recording – cover of the classic 1988 hit “Colours” from the hip hop solo career days of Ice-T. I think most of us have heard it at least once, here BODY COUNT are doing it their way and the result is actually pretty fine. Then it’s time for the most mediocre I would say time of the record, the song “No Remorse”, an angry tune but also nothing special, but after that we get “When I’m gone” with Amy Lee, giving us a very interesting mixture of BODY COUNT and EVANESCENCE, an experiment very successful, surely a hit, but to modern for my taste. The number “Thee Critial Beatdown” is another weak moment for me and now we have reached the final song “Hate is Real”, a song that is more than obvious what is it about. If on the previous album they did a SLAYER cover, this time they are closing with a song that if Tom Araya was singing, it would easily fit in one of the last albums of the Thrash Metal Titans!
Some editions have as a bonus track one more re-recording on an outside BODY COUNT past song from Ice-T, titles “6 in tha morning”. The only thing I want to say here is that it reminded me the song of the titles from the old Will Smith sitcom “The Prince of Bel Air”, so I stop here.
In conclusion, The new 7th album from BODY COUNT is once again an exceptional work, naturally it won’t have the impact of the first classic album, but it’s a worthy successor of the bands legacy with lots of great tunes, top guests and in the end, this is what we want to get from Ice-T and his gang when they are not being chased by the cops in the streets of L.A.
Rating: 710
Editor: Antonis Livanios
Related Link: BODY COUNT- Facebook Page
