Review of The Berzerker - Animosity

"What I need is something so scary, it'll clear three-hundred square miles of every living Christian soul," declares the sample opening "Eye for an Eye." I couldn't agree more. Am I convinced? Almost.

The hellishly turbulent sound practically justifies that statement right off the bat. The guitars and bass make a thick, bottom-heavy wall of sound that merges with the bass drum sample to create a lean, grinding fuzz. I swear Luke Kenny somehow managed to record and digitally compress a supernova for the kicks, because it's right there churning my bowels with light speed, programmed superfluity. There are even occasional glitches and bubbling electric drones sizzling quietly away behind some tracks, but the dirtiness of this record is thankfully pulled together by The Berzerker's most notorious asset: its speed. Sounding at times faster than ever before, the snare has been sampled with a crisp, acoustic tone, and when unleashed truly epitomises a bone-snapping machine gun chatter. Even the abundance of vocals are kept in check by a volume that leaves them aptly fighting for attention.

It all sounds like a blood-soaked dream, with the violently shredding guitars and menacing mid-riff slides of "False Hope," "No More Reasons" and "Weapons of War" injecting much of the ferocity claimed by the album's title. Their mix of double bass rolls, blasts, demented riffs and hyperactive vocals comes across in a frantic gabba crust that'd make a great soundtrack for genocidal invading martians, and all the tracks at their best evoke that intensely focused, brimstone atmosphere similar to any Morbid Angel material. "Retribution" and "Weapons of War" take a more Slaughter of the Soul approach to melodic riffing which works well, while "The Cancer" and "Heavily Medicated" showcase Necroticism-era Carcass chops that can be found in most of The Berzerker's music.

Unfortunately, while the consistency of Animosity is excellent, it is at the cost of having its music padded with melodic, Suffocation-lite riffs that are too compact and too repetitive to give the songs further depth. No track escapes them, and after the onslaught is over it becomes clear that The Berzerker still haven't given us anything very original since their debut. The teasingly different closer "Lonely World" plays around with some sustained beats, extended riffing and less frenzied vocals, but doesn't anticipate anything like the monstrous "Farewell" did from their last album.

It'd be easy to dismiss Animosity on these pedantic grounds, but even though in its bones it is still fairly average death metal, it's also a visceral, adrenal blast with groovy electric beats and a filthy sound. The Berzerker fans are greatly pleased.

Release Details

The Berzerker

Animosity

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