Body Count: “We’re still not accepted in a lot of things. A lot of people still don’t even know about this band.”

Whenever a new Body Count album drops, you know it is going to slap hard. It should come as no surprise that Merciless, the new album from the Ice-T-fronted metal crew, lives up to its name.

Pulling no punches and packed with riffs that wouldn’t look out of place on albums by metal heavyweights like Slayer, and Hatebreed, tracks like “Psychopath” and “Fuck What You Heard” find the group’s savage mix of thrash metal and hardcore coming in harder than ever. Lacing that with Ice T’s unfiltered part-horror part-social-commentary inspired lyrics and you end up with a record that is… Merciless.

In our latest cover story, V13 sat down with bassist Vincent Price to talk about what inspired the aggression of the record, Ice T’s lyrics, and how some people still aren’t aware of the band…

Let’s not waste any time. The new record lives up to its name. It doesn’t pull any punches. Carnivore came out, you couldn’t tour it or really do anything to promote it. How much did that affect the aggression that went into the new record?

“It did. Basically, because Ice doesn’t live here in L.A, every time he’s signing a record, because we have to sign records and send them out and everything, every time he signs a record, he’s like, ‘Vince, how are we going to top this record?’ and I have to say ‘Alright, don’t worry. We got it. We’ll top it.’ So, when we were signing the Carnivore record, he said the same thing. He says, ‘How are we going to top this record?’ I was like, ‘Don’t worry, you got it.’

Every time he says that it makes me go even harder. On this record, we went through so much stuff on this record. COVID happened. Will Dorsey had a stroke. So I went into this whole thing of, ‘Alright, what am I going to do?’ I went up to Will Putney’s and hung out with him for a while. We wrote like 14 songs. Not all the songs made it on this record, but we started the process way back when.”

At what point did you kind of cut off Carnivore and say, ‘Right, we’ve done trying with that. Let’s just start afresh.’?

“I listened to that record so much that it became part of me. But then I said, ‘Okay, not every song on that record is a hard-hitting song’. So I said ‘On this next one, we just want to have every song hard-hitting.’”

There was a comment which I think came from Ice along the lines of the record label saying, ‘Right, deliver us a new record,’ even though you felt you weren’t ready for it. Did that fuel the aggression on the record?

“Oh, we missed the deadline like four times. It’s one of those things where you can rush to do something and get it done, but you have to let it pass, sit for a while before you can actually analyze it and figure it out. Not spend too much time on it but, when you’re in the process of doing something like that, other things happen in your life that changes different point of views on stuff. I would say that record just grew. It just grew and it kept growing until it was finally finished.”

“Not every song on Carnivore is a hard-hitting song. I said ‘On this next one, we just want to have every song hard-hitting.’”

Anybody who doesn’t know Body Count can look down the tracklist and there are certain tracks on there like “Psychopath,” “Lying Motherfucker,” “Fuck What You Heard.” When the lyrics are being written, do you have any input in that or do you just let Ice get on with it?

“The only lyrics I wrote was on ‘Drug Lords.’”

Ice said he’d been watching movies like Hostel. Has he ever come back to you with lyrics and you thought, ‘Wow, that’s too much?”

“Not yet. There’s some songs that we had to set aside because of stuff like that but sometimes people can’t really take what’s really going on. The theme of the record is all Ice’s vision. Every time he does press when we’re in Europe and he mentions a new record title that means I need to go to work. Ice is a full horror movie buff. That’s all he does is horror movies. He’s into blood and guts and violence.”

V13 Cover Story – Issue 071 – Body Count

Is that where the collaborations with people like Corpsegrinder came from?

“When we’re doing these songs, we will listen back then someone will say ‘Oh man, we should get this person on that song. We should get this person on this song.’ When that song was first written, it was called ‘Evil Dead’ and it was a thrash metal song. I wanted to have Tom Araya sing on it while he was still in hiatus, not doing anything, but we couldn’t get it to work.

Well, what it is basically, once the song’s done, we’ll think about who’s a perfect person for the song, you know, we’ve always talked about, you know, I said like, Hey, I want Will to write me a Fit for an Autopsy song. So basically, we just figured out what song makes perfect sense for Joe and there you have it, ‘Psychopath.’”

Going right back to the beginning of the band, you toured with the likes of D. R. I., Exodus, do you see bands like Cannibal Corpse and Body Count fitting together to tour together?

“That’s how we became friends when we came out with Manslaughter, We did a tour with Cannibal Corpse – Cannibal Corpse, Upon a Burning Body, Darkest Hour… so many bands.”

I remember going back to the late 80s, early 90s with the Anthrax/Public Enemy crossover. Body Count preceded all of that. Do you find you’ve fit more in with the metal crowd than a rap crowd these days? I’ve seen Ice commenting that he doesn’t like being labeled as rap metal…

“Yeah. The band’s not a rap metal band at all.”

So, do you feel you’ve got more in common lyrically and musically with the hardcore bands and the metal scene?

“I think once people actually see and hear the band that are not into the band, they’re going to like the band no matter what because the band is a little different. It’s been different since day one.”

“When that song was first written, it was called ‘Evil Dead’ and it was a thrash metal song. I wanted to have Tom Araya sing on it…”

To date you’ve got the two Grammys yet, when the band came out, there was a lot of controversy around certain songs like ‘Cop Killer.’ Those people who campaigned against you are now throwing those awards at you. Does it feel weird that you’ve flipped that on its head?

“That stuff has not gone away. We’re still not accepted, not really. It’s like 50/50. We’re still not accepted in a lot of things. A lot of people still don’t even know about this band. Hopefully, with this record, a lot of people will know more about the band. Every time I mention the band they go, ‘Oh, is Ice T still singing?’”

Is that frustrating?

“Yes and no because it keeps me working even harder. Until I can see Ernie C being mobbed by a bunch of people then I know my work’s done but if he’s walking down the street and nobody even pays attention to who he is or anything, my work’s not done.”

Going back to the album, specifically the song ‘Purge’ Given the state of the planet at the moment, do you think a purge would be the best solution for humanity, or do you think there’s still hope that humanity can still be saved?

“No. No. No. No. It’s gotten worse.”

Body Count ‘Merciless’ Album Artwork

Growing up in LA which is notoriously a tough part of the world, what was that journey like for you and how cathartic for you is having an outlet like Body Count?

“It was crazy because I was a kid and seeing all that crazy stuff go on. Well, what’s crazy now is all the stuff that was happening when I was growing up is happening now, but it’s all over the world.”

When you tour all over the world, does it surprise you that you see those issues in countries that you maybe wouldn’t expect it?

“No, because I saw that stuff happening from a long time ago. When I got out of South Central, LA, when I discovered punk rock music and skateboarding in the eighties and stuff like tha. They talk about it in the music. That’s why Discharge is one of my favorite bands.

Discharge and Exploited talked about all the stuff that they were going through and what they were dealing with that I know about because they were not over there. I already had an insight on it because I already saw what was going on because of the music I listened to, because the music I listened to was all about that.”

“What’s crazy now is all the stuff that was happening when I was growing up is happening now, but it’s all over the world.”

You’ve talked about bands like Discharge and Exploited, was that your gateway into punk and skateboarding? What was it that resonated with you?

“I lived in Inglewood, Watts, Compton, all those places all over South Central. I moved to Pomona and I was hanging out with my friends in junior high school at the time. They were into Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Peter Frampton, and Yes… stuff like that. I was into it but then, when I went to High School, I started skateboarding then, and Van Halen came out.

I saw the professional skateboarders, and how they were into punk rock, and that’s how I slowly but surely got into punk rock. From there, it’s been that way ever since. When people say that today’s music is punk, I’m like, ‘You guys have no clue.’”

That punk mentality is something you’ve carried throughout your personal life. Is that something you’ve always tried to carry into music as well?

“I’m still punk. Once you’re a hardcore punk and once you are punk, you are for life.”

By the time this piece goes live, the US will have a new President. Regardless of which way the vote goes, what your hopes for America post November 4th?

“I have no idea. Like I said, all my lyrics and all my thinking comes from Discharge and Exploited. It happens here in the US. Still happening. It’s not going to change. Ice is talking about it and stuff’s not gonna change. They’re all corrupt. They all just want to say they want to do this, do this but the world… it’s not getting any better…”