Dave Mustaine is set to collaborate with Body Count once again, Ice-T says

Metal legends Body Count are currently hard at work on Merciless, the follow-up to their Grammy-winning 2020 LP, Carnivore. 

In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Body Count frontman Ice-T provided an update on the new album's progress, revealing that the band are “about halfway through” recording the LP, and that the album will likely play host to another collaboration between the band and Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine.

Mustaine has a history of working with Body Count, having previously contributed spoken word vocals and lead electric guitar work to Civil War, the opening track of Body Count's 2017 album, Bloodlust.

Ice-T subsequently returned the favor, lending some spoken word vocals of his own to Night Stalkers, a frenzied cut from Megadeth's 2022 album, The Sick, The Dying… and the Dead!

“Dave Mustaine has got at us already,” Ice-T told Metal Hammer. “He wants to write a song. Dave worked with us on Bloodlust – he did Civil War. But usually what we do with a Body Count album is make it first by ourselves, then call in people.”

In an interview with Guitar World last September, Mustaine spoke positively of working with Ice-T on Night Stalkers, citing his "great [acting] parts" in the song.

“I’ve been friends with Ice-T for a long time," he explained. "When we first met in Los Angeles he told me he was an Army Ranger, so it was only natural that I would get him to do this because I wanted to get a great musician who has cred as a military guy. I asked him if he would do a spoken part and he gave me so many good ones it was hard to pick which one to use.”

Mustaine isn't the only metal A-lister that Body Count members have collaborated with in recent times, either. Last year, the band's guitarists, Ernie C and Juan Garcia, joined Lamb of God in the studio to contribute backing vocals to their 2022 album, Omens.

In an interview with Guitar World last June, regarding the 30th anniversary of Body Count's explosive 1992 self-titled debut album, Ice-T also touched briefly on Merciless, promising simply that it will be the band's “hardest fucking record” to date. 

According to Metal Hammer, the band hope to finish the album this month, and release it this summer.