In terms of sheer destructive capacity, few bands can match up to The Berzerker. Although sheer speed firmly distinguishes the band, it is their acute proclivity for composing torrential, time-shifting madness that truly sets them apart from the remainder of the grinding rabble. 'World Of Lies' is everything fans could ever want in a death metal record, with its raw vocal rasps, ominous guttural emissions, and mechanized, beyond-hyperspeed blasts of percussive fury having one solitary goal in mind – a thorough and comprehensive battering of the human senses.
Undeniably formidable and overwhelmingly commanding, this well-named ensemble of Australians literally attacks the listener with bombastic ferocity, The guitar tones on this album are so sharp one would literally assume that the guitarists were using razor wire for guitar strings. Meanwhile the flurries of thumping drum sounds that ensue at the onset of 'Black Heart' are complimented by buzzing, bombastic bass rumbling that shakes the ground with an earthquake-like, mega-destructive capacity.
On 'World Of Lies,'even more so than on the group's previous record, 'Dissimulate,' the groups insanely rapid gabba roots blend in with their apocalyptic death metal ambience, fusing the two sounds together in a manner that has frankly, never been accomplished by another act. Songs like the finely grinding 'All About You' and 'World Of Tomorrow', which brings a doom influence into the mix. This creates a lock, stock and barrel, up-to-the-minute definition of sonic extremity which plainly must be heard to be believed.
Ushering in an entirely new age in extreme music on the futuristic yet frantic 'As The World Waits', as the distorted kick drums speed along like Hellhammer drank a can of jetfuel and someone lit a match under his ass. If you are familiar with The Bezerker or the gabba sound in general, this should come as no surprise and if you have not yet had the pleasure of having your head completely ripped off by this band's excessively overpowering sound, hopefully that description will bring you up to speed.
'Free Yourself' enjoins the sensations that may be produced by a mixture of Morbid Angel, Ministry and Barnes-era Cannibal Corpse, while 'Constant Pain' rips along so rapidly that the sound almost sounds as it is standing still. Sick vocals do much to enhance the fright factor as the band digs into ruthlessly searing change-ups bridged by turnarounds that scarcely leave an afterthought in their blinding speed and pinpoint precision. A doomy, repeating passage entitled 'Farewell' brings this aural eradicator to an extremely classy close with morose dirging and an overtly glum tone.
If there is any one album that you must own in the death metal genre in 2005, it is 'World Of Pain,' which is head and shoulders above any other release that Earache Records has produced this year. One must look back to the days when the mosh catalog was still in its teens to find an Earache Record that is such a vital musical statement, so massively worshipful and so significantly overwhelming. Elevating The Berzerker to the status of impervious gods, this record is nothing less than a death metal masterpiece!
Review by: Erin Fox
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