Band:	Body Count
Album:	Bloodlust
Style:	Crossover thrash metal
Release date:	March 31, 2017
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Civil War [feat. Dave Mustaine]
02. The Ski Mask Way
03. This Is Why We Ride
04. All Love Is Lost [feat. Max Cavalera]
05. Raining In Blood / Postmortem 2017 [Slayer cover]
06. God, Please Believe Me
07. Walk With Me? [feat. Randy Blythe]
08. Here I Go Again
09. No Lives Matter
10. Bloodlust
11. Black Hoodie

Body Count is in the house.

Gee, how many reviews do you think start with that line? At least one, probably. They made it so easy, though, by using that line in every other song for a few albums. The smartest and most physically attractive among you will recall that Ice-T's hardcore outfit awoke from a long slumber in 2014, launching an assault in the form of Manslaughter that nobody saw coming. Ice wasn't finished, though, and if you thought he sounded angry last time around, you might want to grab a helmet and run for cover before throwing on Bloodlust.

Bloodlust drives home better than any album since the debut that Body Count arose out of passion, not just for heavy music, but for the social issues that concern Ice-T and flood these tracks with raw rage. Though the screws on the production have been tightened a bit too much for the good of the album, Bloodlust takes Body Count's sound in a darker, more violent direction than Manslaughter - almost as if the eschatological misery of "Last Days" received an injection of the adrenaline fueling Body Count's comeback (especially "This Is Why We Ride"). The eerie riffing in the chorus of "No Lives Matter" and haunting interlude of "God, Please Believe Me" drag the album into a dark underworld of brutal violence and unfettered hatred.

Ernie C's riffs are sharp, chunky, and to-the-point, giving Ice-T a heavy platform from which to level his cold gaze without forgetting that the hardcore side of the band needs nurturing just as much as the imagery and persona. It's impossible to understate the importance of Ice-T's charisma. Body Count would be a fun, heavy hardcore/thrash project without him, but with his confident command of the mic, delivering tales of sprawling urban decay and spiraling vengeance, this band becomes something much heavier in more ways than one. Having Max Cavalera and Randy Blythe growling away behind him on "All Love Is Lost" and "Walk With Me?" doesn't hurt one bit. Jamey Jasta's appearance on Manslaughter already demonstrated that Body Count and harsh vocals make an exceptional combination, and it's good to see the band furthering this line of experimentation.

Ice-T's spoken intro to the "Raining Blood/Postmortem" medley gives some insight to the band's origins and influences; none of his admissions come as any surprise, and the covers are pretty by-the-books, but it's good to hear some tribute paid, and boy, do they nail that breakdown. This point in the album also demonstrates pretty well how limiting the production has become; it's too stiff and airtight. It's an improvement over the band's early days, but reintroducing some of that slapstick rawness would go a long way in bringing Body Count's sound down to the level of grounded realism the songs demand.

"Black Hoodie" closes up the album with a grim callback to KRS-One and some of Ice's most venomous exhortations to date. Although the Slayer side quest is a good time and "Here I Go Again" is fun in a psychotic Alice Cooper sort of way, Bloodlust is serious business up and down otherwise.