Album Review: Body Count – “Carnivore” 8.5/10 (Metalcore/Rap)

Written by Carcassbomb

• Body Count
• Carnivore
• Metalcore/Rap/Thrash
• California, USA
• March 6th, 2020
• Century Media Records
• 8.5/10

I’ll admit, I’ve listened to a lot of Body Count, as in, I’ve listened to the same album from the 90s a million times and never bothered going further or exploring their discography. So this album opened way fucking harder than I was ready for. I mean, second track around the 2:20 mark I had no choice but the throw-down – do you know how much strain that is for a 30 year old smoker? There’s a lot modern deathcore/metalcore elements that work nicely into the rap/rock dynamic.

Ice T is too legit, that’s just how it is. Carnivore is his platform to call everyone else in the world pussies and incite further violence against authority. This time around Body Count has recruited a lot of guests and special appearances ranging from Amy Lee vocals to some drums from Dave Lombardo. Jello Biafra even has a vocal credit on “The Hate Is Real”.

As white as I am, I sure as fuck have something in common with the demographic of this record – I’ve only ever had bad experience with police and I refuse to talk to a cop for any reason. Their job aint my job and I’m not helping them arrest me. Between Body Count and early Rollins, the anti-cop sentiment is something I’ve always vibed with. They aren’t even people, they’re conditioned and trained to investigate and manipulate civilians like some kind of dementors. They are on the wrong side of the thin blue line, they separated themselves from us with the air of superiority and they are backed by the state which is backed by corporations… The cops are a corporate army. For as long as Capitalism reigns, police will always be anti-people.

THEY CANT STOP. THE BUM RUSH.

I love the call to action on this record, too bad none us can leave the house to start riots and loot Target stores. If I had to choose between saving one homeless bum and saving ten police I’d save the bum and ask if we can keep doing these hypotheticals. If my publication wasn’t already on a list…

The metalcore element definitely comes strong from contributing musicians such as Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed and Kingdom Of Sorrow, as well as well as vocals from Riley Gale from Power Trip. The biggest contributor of the metalcore sound however is the additional guitars, production, mixing and mastering from Fit For An Autopsy‘s Will Putney. So we have here, a breeding ground for that crossover/metalcore sound that slots really well into Body Count‘s framework and Ice T‘s lyric style. Big collab album that really paid off.

It’s not a perfect album though. I love the idea that they cover songs on each album from a major influence and I absolutely respect that they chose to cover Motorhead but The Ace Of Spades in comparison is so much more chill than the rest of the album. I’m too familiar with it and it’s classical at this point, it feels like it’d make more sense on an early Body Count record but I suppose this one is timely for his death. It’s conflicting because it does interrupt the flow a little bit. A heavier song like the previous Slayer cover would have been great. I’m also generally not a fan of the moments where Ice T will stop everything to do spoken word over the top of a guitar solo.

There’s just this weird miscommunication on the album where it’s calling everyone a pussy but at the same time seems to be grieving on multiple tracks. Not to say grieving is “pussy”, that’d be just cruel, I’m saying there’s a mix of harsh and sweet that feels inconsistent. So yeah, when I’m listening for the sake of waking my shit up I do skip some tracks because I want those breakdowns, I want the shouted lyrics and I want the one-two-punch of shouting the sentiments at hand.

All in all, this album impressed my pants off and didn’t really reveal it’s downsides until after many many listens, all of which I, at the very least, enjoyed. It was never a chore and it makes for an interesting first listen.

8.5/10