Band:	Body Count
Album:	Carnivore
Style:	Crossover thrash metal
Release date:	March 06, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Carnivore
02. Point The Finger [feat. Riley Gale]
03. Bum-Rush
04. Ace Of Spades [Motörhead cover]
05. Another Level [feat. Jamey Jasta]
06. Colors
07. No Remorse
08. When I'm Gone [feat. Amy Lee]
09. Thee Critical Beatdown
10. The Hate Is Real
11. 6 In Tha Morning [unreleased demo][bonus]

I am pretty sure that if I talked smack about this album, Ice-T would literally come to my house and whoop my ass.

Critic beat-up fantasies aren't really anything new for Ice-T. We find them here on "Thee Critical Beatdown", but you know, it goes both ways. Critics should have "beaten up by Ice-T" fantasies. I know I do. Unless we talking about "Talk Shit, Get Shot" from a few albums ago. I'd rather not get shot, thank you very much.

Ice-T has had a pretty interesting career. His hip-hop career goes as far back as a couple of singles with different outfits in the early 80s, then his debut Rhyme Pays in 1987. So Ice-T really is an O.G., and it was actually on his 1991 album O.G. Original Gangster that he presented to the world his metal outfit formed with his high school friend Earnie C, on a track which would bear the band's name: "Body Count". Their self-titled debut came out an year later. At this point Ice-T hasn't really released a solo hip-hop album since 2006, so Body Count is pretty much his main gig, clearly outgrowing their "Ice-T's metal band" novelty. After a few uncertain years and somewhat lacking albums, Body Count had a massive comeback and a reinvention of their sound with 2014's Manslaughter and 2017's Bloodlust (here's some enthusiastic reviews of both of those). Now comes Carnivore. Can they keep the energy going?

For fuck's sake, yes they can! I'm not really in the position where I can really properly assess Ice-T's skill as a rapper, but he has such a unique and powerful approach as a hardcore vocalist. There isn't really a point where he is really rapping or anything, but it's clear that his approach is still cut from the same cloth. And that is something that to this day makes him feel more earnest, and most importantly, more angry. When he tells you that he is pissed of, he's fucking pissed off, and you feel it. So obviously the uncompromising or socially conscious lyrics that would otherwise sound corny sound earnest from his mouth, especially with his between-songs banter. I'm not going to dive into the lyrics, since one of the best things about a new Body Count is hearing the lyrics for the first time. This time ain't no different.

Carnivore is pretty much in line with the previous two releases, more or less. The sound is modernized for the most part, continuing the recent releases' ventures into occasional breakdowns and chugs, with some harsher guest vocalists, like Power Trip's Riley Gale and Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta, the latter of which also guested on 2014's Manslaugher. There's also a guest spot from Evanescence's Amy Lee on "When I'm Gone", a song about Nipsey Hussle's murder, which is a great Body Count song, but a collaboration that is kinda unexpected and honestly kinda jagged. It also continues the tradition of a pretty by the books cover, this time of Motörhead's "Ace Of Spades", as well as another metal version of a hip-hop Ice-T song with "Colors", and another one in the bonus track. So a lot of Carnivore is by the Manslaughter and Bloodlust books.

Maybe if we can keep a big enough amount of injustice in the world to keep Ice-T consistently angry, he will pump out more music like this.