2006-01-14
This is the Aussie band's third album, continuing their tradition of hyper-fast industrial death metal/grind-core. There's a definite aura of mystery around the group, their mug-shots (jail material for sure) at the back of the promo are probably the first ones of their faces without masks. They started out as a one-man show, Luke, the same guy who re-mixed Morbid Angel for the Hellspawn album a few years back, and then developed into a full fledged band.
Be it one mad genius from down-under or six escaped convicts, it really doesn’t matter, what matters is the sheer aggression of this release, a combination of deep growls and high shrieks, tuned-down death metal riffs, and drum beats that fluctuate between normal sounding death metal ones to almost techno-industrial mad rhythms.
I really didn’t care much for the sound, an industrialized "dirty" sound, edges of feedback and noise enveloping the otherwise clear guitar sound, but the strength of the compositions comes through, it starts off simple enough, but as the album progress it's clear we're in a definite la-la land.
Favorite tracks? Probably the third, All About You, and the Fifth, World Of Tomorrow, both show the wider range of the album, they contain much more than mindless aggression, the added voice samples also gives the album a creepy vibe, it comes off as the soundtrack for a horror movie at times, and keeps reminding you that the album has several more layers to peel off.
It’s the combination of the aggressive beats with the mostly excellent riffs that drives this album, the shouted and growled vocals are just an added bonus, to best way to imagine how this combination of techno rhythms and death riffs works Is to visualize a dance floor, shiny colors, well-dressed party goers, and then they turn on each-other, ties and all, and start cracking skulls and gnawing on each other genitals, this is would you should expect from The Berzerker.
It's a bit difficult to see through the blast-beats and industrial sound, but there's a quality underneath that's certainly there, they may be mad, but The Berzerker are also geniuses.
Alon Miasnikov
