If you’ve been reading “The Daily Vault” for some time, you’ll
\nbe familiar with what we call the “sophomore slump”. If you’re a
\nrelatively new reader, this term refers to the difficulty an artist
\nfaces when they release their second album – especially if the
\nfirst album is a success. I’ve seen far too many examples of
\nartists whose second album pales in comparison to their debut – and
\nsadly, some of these artists are never heard from again.<\/p>\n
Today, I’d like to highlight a group that not only didn’t fall
\ninto the “sophomore slump,” but released an album that was better
\nthan their debut. That group? Body Count. The album?
\nBorn Dead<\/i>. The ferociousness of this album – in both vocals
\nand performances – is a major step up from the album that brought
\nus “Cop Killer” (and the ensuing controversy), and could well be an
\noverlooked classic from the ’90s.<\/p>\n
Ice-T was seemingly on a downhill roll. After a lengthy battle
\nover the song “Cop Killer” (which would eventually be removed from
\nlater pressings of
\nBody Count<\/i>), Warner Brothers dropped the rapper. If memory
\nserves me correctly, the final flap with Warner Brothers had to do
\nwith the artwork for Ice-T’s solo album
\nHome Invasion<\/i>, which ended up being released on Virgin. Not
\nsurprisingly, Body Count also ended up on the new label, but
\nBorn Dead<\/i> was released to the public with little – if any –
\nfanfare.<\/p>\n
Too bad… it’s a damn good album, and a frightening one as
\nwell. More on that in a minute.<\/p>\n
The first thing that hits you when listening to
\nBorn Dead<\/i> is that the band – guitarist Ernie-C, guitarist
\nD-Roc, bassist Mooseman and drummer Beatmaster “V” – is a much
\ntighter musical unit. Granted,
\nBody Count<\/i> was recorded after the band had only been
\ntogether for a few months. But
\nBorn Dead<\/i> shows what a little time and seasoning can do for
\nany band.<\/p>\n
Second, Ice-T seems more willing to do more than just scream the
\nlyrics to the songs. He even – gasp! – sings on the band’s cover of
\n“Hey Joe”, proving that he has a pretty good set of pipes. But
\nIce-T does expand things by using some vocal distortion at times –
\nand on tracks like “Masters Of Revenge,” it works well.<\/p>\n
Of course, the zealots are going to complain about the violence
\nand language on
\nBorn Dead<\/i>, just like they did on
\nBody Count<\/i>. They may deride the imagery on songs like “Last
\nBreath,” or claim that a song like “Street Lobotomy” is a billboard
\nfor drug use.<\/p>\n
But let’s really be honest: Ice-T is not promoting any of this.
\nInstead, he is acting as a social commentator on a world that many
\nof us are fortunate enough not to see day in and day out. But it is
\nreal, it is not far from where we live – and Ice-T makes us
\nuncomfortable by reminding us about it in the music.<\/p>\n
The fact is, tracks like “Street Lobotomy” (which tells of the
\ndangers of drugs and drink), “Shallow Graves” (which is an anti-war
\nsong) and “Necessary Evil” (a commentary about life on the wrong
\nside of the tracks) should remind us that this world exists, and
\nthe longer we turn our eyes away from it, the worse things are
\ngoing to get. Even the title track is a reminder that we can’t take
\nanything for granted, and if we just saw how bad some of our fellow
\nhuman beings had it, we might just appreciate the little things in
\nour own lives.<\/p>\n
Even if you don’t go beyond the lyrics and try to find a deeper
\nmessage in these songs,
\nBorn Dead<\/i> is an album that musically does not disappoint.
\nThis album proves that not only was Ice-T’s all-black heavy metal
\nband not a gimmick, but they were a force that should have been
\nreckoned with. It’s just too bad that some people couldn’t get past
\nthe stereotypes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5716],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38699","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-body-count","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38699"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}