Live Review: Body Count & Slope at The Forum in Kentish Town (30/06/24)

On a sunny Sunday Kentish Town prepares itself for an onslaught of Bodycount fans, all coming for one reason. Bodycount feat. the legendary ICE T at The Forum – also featuring Slope on support. Nobody can complain about a cheeky little 2 band lineup on a Sunday, makes sure that we’re all getting home in time for dinner and a nice early evening.

Myself, feeling slightly merry at the idea of seeing ‘mother*********’ ICE T in the forum with some heavy metal, waste no time in making my way down to Kentish Town and getting inside. This is just a small thing that I wanted to mention, but as soon as I got in I was offered a cup of water by a staff member stood right by the entrance to the room. Big up The Forum for that – as it’s one of those small things that I actually really appreciate at shows.

After grabbing one of those cheeky double pints, I grab a nice little spot near the back so I can catch the opener ‘Slope’ – wasting absolutely no time in coming out to a wall of screeching tones and blasting cymbals. This sort of thing is right up my street and I’m chuffed to be honest, coming in with no expectations the constant onslaught of noisy punk funk is a sight to behold. Two step beats are cut up by bouncy low end bass slaps, and the constant switch ups of the pace are really fun. The classic hardcore influences of bands exactly like Body Count are shining through in their sound and it’s lovely to see a younger band on this bill, clearly picked with their sound in mind. If you’ve got the chance to check out Slope at some point, absolutely do. Next time they’re in town I’ll be checking out what they’re doing for sure, as I’d love to see them on their own headlining – perhaps in a slightly smaller room with a more receptive crowd.

Speaking of crowds, there is a clear air of excitement amongst all the folks there – waiting for the main event. The reason people are all here. There’s movement in the wings and the lights go dark and the crowd surges forward and the room erupts into a frenzy of screams.

You hear that classic ‘yeahhhhh motherf***er!’ And you know exactly what time it is.

Pulling up to the stage they open up with ‘Body Count’s in the house’ and it’s slightly insane to me that I’m currently watching the legendary ICE-T perform with his metal band. Between some absolutely terrifying heaviness that I wasn’t sure I was expecting they are clearly just having so much fun up there. Blasting drums and big fat riffs are plentiful here, and it’s all paired with huge solos that echo out in the room, bouncing off all the walls.

There’s no doubt in my mind at all that they all do this because it’s fun, I’m watching like 6-7-8 dudes just all go nuts on stage and it’s as entertaining as the music. Between bangers like Psychopath and Talk Shit, Get Shot where ICE brings out his kids – this is really cool. I can’t exactly put it into words, but it fills me with a certain type of joy. This all cut up between some genuinely disgusting riffs makes for an absolutely wonderful night of heavy music, I don’t think I’m the only one who felt this way as the crowd was MOVING. Moving more than I’ve seen at most hardcore shows and considering the clientele I was surprised. Walking around the room to try and catch a vibe and it just honestly seems like everyone is stoked, and that to me is the best sign.

If you’ve got the chance to catch Body Count – do it. I think they’re one of those bucket list bands and to be honest I need everyone to see what I saw so we can all freak out about it together! To go in with almost no expectations other than ‘This is Ice-T’s VERY heavy band’ I was absolutely blown away.

To me it was made immediately clear exactly how cool this band are, and once again, next time they’re in town – I’m there. Not missing it for the world.