“Hope the masses are ready for the crushing you all are about to deliver!” Days after viewers raged over Knocked Loose’s performance, Body Count are announced to play Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Controversy creates cash? Amid fury around Knocked Loose’s performance last week, Jimmy Kimmel Live! is poking the bear and booking one of metal’s most outspoken bands: Ice-T’s Body Count.

The rap metal veterans, world-renowned for their incendiary single Cop Killer, will appear on the ABC talk show on Wednesday, December 4. They’ll likely play a song from new album Merciless, released on November 22 via Century Media.

The performance will take place 15 days after hardcore sensations Knocked Loose played their Grammy-nominated song Suffocate on the programme, backed by blasts of pyro and a guest appearance from genre-smashing singer/songwriter Poppy.

The ferocious, breakdown-laden set aggravated Kimmel’s more pearl-clutching viewers. According to a now-viral report by UK newspaper The Mirror, one Facebook user claimed Knocked Loose reduced their teenage son to tears. Others took issue with frontman Bryan Garris’ harsh vocal style, with some going as far as to demand an apology from the talk show.

However, the backlash has made Knocked Loose’s set one of the most talked-about Kimmel performances in some time. Has the widespread discussion inspired the producers to double down on getting metal bands to perform on nationwide TV? If so, great!

Nonetheless, the response to Kimmel announcing Body Count has been broadly positive. One user on X (formerly Twitter) writes, “I will be watching….Hope the masses are ready for the crushing you all are about to deliver! Horns up”

Though Knocked Loose and Body Count are by far the heaviest bands Kimmel have booked, the show has a history of championing rock music. My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Thrice, The Used and A Day To Remember have previously graced its stage.

When they released Merciless, Body Count once again won critical acclaim, including a glowing four-star review from Metal Hammer’s Dom Lawson. Lawson wrote, “​​​​Thirty years after Cop Killer, Ice-T is still committed to making music that goes harder than the rest.”

Outside of the Kimmel appearance, the rap metal band have one show scheduled for the remainder 2024. They’ll play the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, on Thursday, December 5. Tickets are still available.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.