LIVE REVIEW: Body Count feat. ICE-T, Slope, O2 Ritz, Manchester, 01/07/2024
Photo Credit: Tom Forrester
This run of UK dates are Body Count’s first since their Covid-induced hiatus. Making up for lost time, the band have been working on a new album, and are touring the world in preparation. We caught up with them on their Manchester date.
German post-hardcore troop Slope get things underway. Boasting eclectic influences, from suicidal tendencies to Red Hot Chili Peppers and everything in between theirs is quite a refreshing take on hardcore. There’s funk, breakdowns and riffs galore. Think Higher Power if they’d listened to Primus on loop, and you’d have an idea of their sound. Ultimately Slope lean more to the hardcore side of crossover-thrash. But there are plenty of sludgy riffs and breakdowns to keep even the most fervent of metal heads happy. When frontman Simon Blümel asks if anyone in the crowd has seen Slope live before, barely a handful indicate that they have. However, following this set, it’s clear many more will make the pilgrimage for their shows in the autumn. 7/10
Body Count hit the stage, with the sirens and police radio recordings from the intro to their classic track Civil War. This juxtaposes against the skeletal figures on their backdrop; highlighting Body Count’s ever-living penchant for combing the theatrical elements of metal with the gritty reality of West Coast hip-hop. This sense only grows, when opening track Body Count’s in the House merges seamlessly into a cover of Slayer’s Raining Blood/Postmortem. It’s a bombastic and energetic start to the set, but also a reminder that no-one makes music quite as unique as this.
The hits keep coming, as the band roar through Bowels of the Devil, and There Goes the Neighbourhood. As the band have been playing these songs together for so long, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re performed so tightly. It is slightly surprising that Ice-T and Ernie-C can deliver such energy, aggression and noise at the age of 67 and 65 respectively. It’s not just about the classics, however, as a few teasers from pending album Merciless litter the set. New track Purge is a doom-laden beast inspired by the film of the same name. It’s a slight departure from the bands usual brand of crossover thrash, but as the band proved on 2020’s carnivore, they aren’t afraid to branch out into other genres of extreme metal.
Similarly, Ice’s growls on latest single Psycopath border on black metal territory, but the slow and heavy guitars anchor things down in sludge, doom and even death metal territory. As acknowledged, the new songs are heavily influenced by horror and true crime, which is in-keeping with the subject matter of the majority of the band’s back-catalogue. However, the broadening of the band’s sound is intriguing, and comes across well in the live setting.
Technically, the band is probably tighter than it’s ever been. Ice, Ernie C and Sean E Sean have been performing as part of Body Count for 34 years at this point. The rhythm section of Vincent Price on bass, Ill Will on drums and Juan of the Dead on rhythm guitar-now all long-serving band members themselves-provide a foundation that is as heavy as it is proficient. Relatively-new member Little Ice (Ice-T’s son) adds a different dynamic to the live experience, in his role as backing singer and hype man; giving the live tracks a more street-feel, with his gang vocals.
Between tracks, Ice still enjoys banter with the crowd. Prior to Manslaughter he gives a speech that is decidedly unwoke; in relation to toxic masculinity and femininity. His tongue remains very much in cheek, however, and the crowd is all the more raucous for it. Much like a heel wrestler, he gets the best possible heat, as he knows the crowd is in on the joke.
During Talk Shit, Get Shot the band welcome a young audience member on the stage to help sing the chorus. Undoubtedly making the fan’s night, but also highlighting that the band’s show is so much more than just performing their song’s live. It’s also about forging a genuine connection, something that may last for years, and has certainly been a cornerstone of the band’s live show to-date.
The band end their set with controversial track Cop Killer, followed by a ‘virtual encore’ (the band stay on stage and revel in the audience chants, rather than leaving the stage to surprisingly return) of Born Dead, This Is Why We Ride, and a surprise cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. The conclusion sums up the band’s show perfectly; there’s something old, something new and something completely out of the left-field. That the band can still deliver in this way at this point in their career, and their lives, is truly incredible. The band completely deserves all the love they receive, and the metal scene certainly owes it to them. 9/10
Written By: Tom Forrester
