Body Count

Born Dead (Virgin)
by Paul Lee

It’s loud, unrelenting and uninspired. Uninspired? Yeah, Ice-T and Body Count are back in the ring and they couldn’t even knock The Crüe out of it with Born Dead (Virgin). A major stink was raised about “Cop Killer,” and their first album wasn’t bad. I’ve enjoyed their live shows, but Born Dead is a waste of energy.

It doesn’t take much to back up my case against Body Count. Born Dead starts off with a repetitive thrash-snoozer called “Body Mother Fucking Count.” That’s the lyric, that’s it. Following this are some loud and soulless songs like “Masters of Revenge,” which sounds like a Sabbath knock-off with bad distortion effects and “Last Breath” with the shower-slash music of the flick, Psycho. How much inspiration went into this concept, I wonder. I won’t even go into the massacre of Hendrix’s classic rendition of “Hey Joe” (just get me some anti-nausea drugs). I could go on with the crucifixion, but enough. There are a few songs that aren’t so bad and are more in the vein of the first album. “Necessary Evil” rocks a bit, as does “Last Breath” (with the obligatory homicidal maniac story) which has some thrash-core energy. “Shallow Graves” has the usual thrash-chug/mosh beat and does it in a fair way.

I think that a talented and original thrashcore band from South Central would be a great thing. Unfortunately, Body Count isn’t it. Ice-T isn’t a good metal lyricist and axe man Ernie C. is not a riff-meister. It seems more like B.C. is doing the thrash-core route because it’s in and it’s fun. The passion and power just aren’t there.

The funny thing about B.C. is that when I checked them out in Baltimore a couple of years back, I had fun. I’ll probably see them again in spite of my opinion about Born Dead. Ice is a damned good frontman even if he doesn’t cut the thrash lyricist gig. He was great on Judgement Night with Slayer, and I hope he gets it right again sometime.