One of the Coolest and Most Satanic Album Covers Ever


Now I don’t mean this is Satanic in a “devil-worship” kind of way.  Just hear me out, for those reading this who are not Satanists.

I’ve been wanting to talk about this album cover for a while. However, I had to go to the library first and find some passages from Ice-T’s memoir before I could write this blog entry. This is in regards to Body Count’s debut rock/metal album, Body Count and it’s album cover.

(For those that didn’t know: apart from being a rapper and actor, Ice-T is also a metalhead and Body Count is his rock/metal band. His band is a blend of his 3 favorite bands: Black Sabbath, Suicidal Tendencies, and Slayer).

From ICE: Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—from South Central to Hollywood. Part Four: Freedom of Speech, pg. 133.

“With Body Count, I wanted to have a Black Sabbath sound and style but my lyrics would be based on our lives. Ozzy and Dio would sing about the Devil; if you look at our debut album cover, when you open it, there’s a guy with a gun pointed at your face. To us THAT was the devil. We wanted to change the imagery of metal to reality, like what’s more scary than that: some gangster with a gat pointed at you?

“The cover was supposed to be a super-gangbanger, some arch-criminal of the street—maybe based on a guy like Tookie, with COP KILLER tattooed on his chest. That guy on the cover didn’t look like he had a friend in the world; he was dangerous, the last motherfucker you’d wanna meet on the street. In other words, he was the gatekeeper of Hell. That was more reality-based for us than the standard heavy-metal artwork of Lucifer with horns and a pitchfork.”

While I don’t necessarily advocate pointing guns in people’s faces and killing police and all that, I personally think this is one of the most Satanic album covers ever and Ice-T’s explanation of the album cover is very Satanic.  And I don’t say this in a “stereotypical devil-worship pseudo-satanic” kind of way.

It all goes back to the fact that Satanists don’t believe in the existence of the Devil or the eternal afterlife of Hell. We live in the here and now. Our heaven and hell are right here on planet earth. Living in the real world, you have your actual Devils going through the streets and if you’re in the wrong place or you piss off the wrong person, you’ll have an actual Devil to deal with. You don’t need to worry about an actual Satan bringing you to a world of trouble. Hell can potentially happen to you in the real world if you don’t watch yourself. You’re dealing with reality, and hell is already in reality, but just not in the afterlife-way that people always think of.

To answer Ice-T’s question: I’d be more scared of the guy pointing a gat at me than the devil. Why? Well, let me ask you this: which one are you most likely to encounter: a gat-wielding gangster or some red-colored horn-headed dude with a pitchfork?  Your answer better be the gangster.

Hail Ice-T! Hail Satan!

-Manny

References 

Ice-T, (2012). Freedom of Speech. In Ice: A memoir of gangster life and redemption-- from South Central to Hollywood (p. 133). One World/Ballantine Books Trade Paperbacks. 

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