The Berzerker - World of Lies
Earache Records Mosh320CD - 30/01/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
I've never been impressed by the previous output of The Berzerker, it always seemed that Mr Kenny put the extremity before the songs. Extremity for the sake of it is all well and good in small doses, but whole albums of out and out speed tend to get old fast. The press release for this new album states that Luke Kenny worked on making songs rather than pieces of hodge-podge musicianship. Largely this seems to be true, the individual songs are coherent and work as unique pieces. Unfortunatly, Earache's decision to split the album up into 99 tracks makes it rather bothersome to actually pick a song at random and judge it on it's own merits, but it does seem to work.
Due to the aforementioned track splitting, I couldn't really say which songs serve as highlights and why, but overall the quality level is consistant. The vocals sometimes reach the kind of breakneck speeds at which absolutely nothing is decipherable. The guitars hurtle along at the speed of light. One thing I'd pick out which does get annoying is the signature kick sound Kenny continues to use. The whole techno/gabba thing is starting to get very irritating, as at these speeds it congeals into one long stream of fuzz and really has no definition. Overall the drums sound programmed, it's isn't stated that they are but surely no human could play this robotically without a huge dose of quantisation. Spoken word samples punctuate the chaos at certain points, at times industrial touches permute the proceedings, but the guitar riffs are always the dominant feature.
Overall this album is not at all bad, but the one dimensional approach to death/grind shown here doesn't exactly promote further listening. As much as I hate to be harsh, I just cannot bring myself to give this album too much credit. To these ears The Berzerker needs to evolve, and fast.
6/10
The Bezerker Official Website
Earache Records Official Website
Earache Records Mosh320CD - 30/01/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
I've never been impressed by the previous output of The Berzerker, it always seemed that Mr Kenny put the extremity before the songs. Extremity for the sake of it is all well and good in small doses, but whole albums of out and out speed tend to get old fast. The press release for this new album states that Luke Kenny worked on making songs rather than pieces of hodge-podge musicianship. Largely this seems to be true, the individual songs are coherent and work as unique pieces. Unfortunatly, Earache's decision to split the album up into 99 tracks makes it rather bothersome to actually pick a song at random and judge it on it's own merits, but it does seem to work.
Due to the aforementioned track splitting, I couldn't really say which songs serve as highlights and why, but overall the quality level is consistant. The vocals sometimes reach the kind of breakneck speeds at which absolutely nothing is decipherable. The guitars hurtle along at the speed of light. One thing I'd pick out which does get annoying is the signature kick sound Kenny continues to use. The whole techno/gabba thing is starting to get very irritating, as at these speeds it congeals into one long stream of fuzz and really has no definition. Overall the drums sound programmed, it's isn't stated that they are but surely no human could play this robotically without a huge dose of quantisation. Spoken word samples punctuate the chaos at certain points, at times industrial touches permute the proceedings, but the guitar riffs are always the dominant feature.
Overall this album is not at all bad, but the one dimensional approach to death/grind shown here doesn't exactly promote further listening. As much as I hate to be harsh, I just cannot bring myself to give this album too much credit. To these ears The Berzerker needs to evolve, and fast.
6/10
The Bezerker Official Website
Earache Records Official Website
