The Berzerker 2000   Earache Records Official Website Buy It Now

Why didn’t I think of that?

That was the first thought that ran through my mind when I first heard The Berzerker, the debut full-length release from Australia’s blistering metal act that has taken grindcore into a different direction. Drummers in the world of metal are fast these days, faster than they were back when the scene began to flourish in the 80’s, faster than what was heard when bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, and Morbid Angel took the music a step further, and now even faster. The Berzerker has what you might expect to find in a metal band, guitars, bass, two vocalists, but their uniqueness comes from the use of a drum machine.

With a heavily distorted 909 in their arsenal as well as a fair amount of samples, something that the metal community was once against, The Berzerker takes the idea of extreme music into a completely different direction. With the fast paced guitars heard in grindcore with two vocalists who have a style that is very similar to that of early Carcass, The Berzerker pushes the drum beats to such a degree that it becomes a blend of grind meets hardcore gabber, and it works perfectly.

The first official release, their self-title journey into electronic madness, is a combination of short songs, usually heard in many of the early grind release, with a few tracks that come in over three minutes, but even with fifteen cuts clocking in at only 40 minutes, the album is nothing less than an exercise in endurance that is definitely going to give a few listeners whiplash to a high degree.

There are a number of strong tracks on the release as well, each of them insanely fast and with some very memorable guitar riffs and breakdowns, and that’s what helps the band to make such a devastating impact. It’s much easier to point to the tracks that I’m not a fan of, and that would be “Ode to Nash,” a cut that’s more of a noise experiment, and while I’m a fan of noise, after being hit with such brutal speeds, the change isn’t necessarily welcomed. “Ignorance” is a bit too repetitive for its own good while “Humanity” is another track that’s more about trying to get a good rhythm going, but again, after hearing the other tracks, it’s a change that doesn’t quite work. “95” is more of that same idea, beats combined with noise, but that’s actually the final song on the release I don’t like. The other songs are extremely powerful and give a good idea of what’s to come.

If you think you know speed, if you think you know extreme, you probably haven’t heard The Berzerker, and their self-titled debut will either have you left a quivering mass on the floor incapable of processing what you just heard, or it will have you looking for a safe place to hide. Grind gives way to cyber-grind, and this is a blend of metal and technology that is welcomed.

-mike-
 

Lineup: Luke Kenny - Vocals Ed Lacey - Guitar Jay - Guitar Sam Bean - Bass, Guitar, Low Vocals

Track Listing: 01 – Reality 02 – Forever 03 – Burnt 04 – Pain 05 – Cannibal Rights 06 – Massacre 07 – Chronological Order of Putrefaction 08 – Deform 09 – Slit Down 10 – February 11 – Mono Grind 12 – Ignorance 13 – Humanity 14 – 95 15 – Ode to Nash Total playing time 40:55