An absolute classic record in every shape and form and propelled me full on into the world of grindcore and death metal. Could easily be a contender for one of my favourite albums of all time, but I think in my mid-teens I played this record to death. Unfortunately it was never pressed on vinyl (fecking sort it out Earache!), but the CD version will suffice. It's simple, and digital as fuck (in both sound and artwork) and probably is better off on a digital format.
If you've never heard of them before, the first thing you will probably notice about The Berzerker is the drums, which pretty much render everything else irrelevant unless your listening on a good speaker system. Good luck listening to 35 minutes of bass drum. Able to appreciate the full mix (and not to mention the low end) one would be subjected to one of the heaviest sounds known to man. The guitars are nothing but exquisite Carcass puppetry, as are, to a degree, the vocals, but the drums are absolutely facking mental as fuck, to put it one way.
Why create lightening fast yet ultra heavy grinding death just to lay a whole bunch of gabba hardcore kick drums over the top of it? At the core it's a stupid fucking idea but man this is the only thing that has ever crossed these two genres and sounded great. Opener "Disregard" is an all time favourite song, as are "Principles and Practices of Embalming" and "Abandonment". "Pure Hatred" is simply fucking livid, the human drumming capability barrier is pushed to it's limit in "Death Reveals" and "Corporal Jigsore Quandary" knocks the socks off the Carcass original for speed and heaviness.
What makes the listening all the more mind-blowing is that the band employ a REAL drummer on this record. Rick Thomas from down in Oz is an absolute fucking machine and I implore anyone into drumming performance (and not too iffy about the over-use of triggers) to listen to this damnable blast of grinding death metal.
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