The Berzerker
- This article is about the band. For the professional wrestler, see John Nord.
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The Berzerker |
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The Berzerker is an extreme metal band from Melbourne, Australia. The band's music, heavily influenced by older death metal and (primarily early) grindcore, can be characterized as a fusion of death metal, industrial, and speedcore with a touch of gabba techno. The founder of the band, Luke Kenny describes the band's style as Industrial death metal.
As of 2006, they have released four full length albums, The Berzerker (2000), Dissimulate (2002), World of Lies (2005) and Animosity (2007), all through Earache Records. For their first two albums, the band was composed of four members, only identified as The Vocalist, The Guitarist, The Bassist, and The Drummer, distinguishable on stage only by the intricate monster masks they wore. However, the band have abandoned the masks since their third album.
A DVD documentary, The Principles and Practices of The Berzerker (2004), includes several hours of live concert footage, as well as the first public images of the band members without their monster masks.
Most of the band's music videos have been banned for reasons such as the possible epilepsy inducing imagery to the video Forever, and horrific imagery in the case of Reality which features graphic images of dead bodies and body parts, along with appearances from the band themselves.
Biography
Beginnings and the first album (1995-2000)
The Berzerker first gained the attention of worldwide metal audiences through popular remixes of death metal bands Deicide and Morbid Angel's songs. Earache signed The Berzerker, then consisting only of Luke Kenny as a one-man DJ act. Earache Records' website suggests that the album was supposed to be recorded at Devin Townsend's Vancouver studio with contributions from well-known metal artists David Vincent (Morbid Angel), Kevin Sharp (Brutal Truth, Damaged), Dan Lilker (Brutal Truth, Nuclear Assault), and Jed Simon (Strapping Young Lad, Zimmer's Hole). After disagreements and financial issues, Kenny returned to Australia and worked with friend Sam, who recorded guitar parts, as well as backing vocals. Also enlisted was another Sam contributing backing vocals, dubbed "Toby" due to seniority. Two guitarists Jason and Ed were also recruited from a local metal band The Wolves, and after a lengthy and reportedly trouble-prone preproduction and recording session, the band's first album The Berzerker was released.
The album received wide praise in underground metal magazines, and the band was compared to Napalm Death and Strapping Young Lad, among other groups. [1] The band's grotesque monster masks and energetic live performances earned them further good publicity. Videos for the songs Reality and Forever were released, but were rarely (if ever) aired on MTV and other mainstream outlets.
New members, the sophomore album and intense touring (2001-2003)
The Berzerker had their first full US tour after performing fewer than half a dozen shows, touring with other underground bands Dying Fetus, Gorguts and Skinless. Although the shows were well received, the band didn't function through the rigors of touring as a unit and at the end of the tour the session musicians departed. For some months it seemed doubtful that The Berzerker would last for long. There had been constant setbacks at every stage and any momentum gained was lost with the departure of the live act. The arrival of two replacement members injected new life into the band – drummer Gary Thomas from Perth band Plague and guitarist Matt Wilcock from Abramelin, now currently in Akercocke.
With the arrival of enthusiastic new members the band set about recording their follow up album Dissimulate. The song 'No-one Wins' was also released as a video, and the drumming for the song was considered for submission to the Guinness Book of Records for fastest drumming performance [citation needed]. Around this time the band's dragon logo was redone by designer Ivan Kenny-Sumiga. The band celebrated by playing live shows which resulted in onstage violence in Melbourne for months [citation needed], and when they deemed themselves heavy enough they headed off for a world tour lasting from 2002 to 2003.
After covering Australia, The Berzerker toured the US with Immolation, Vader and Origin, then travelled to the UK for a headlining tour with Labrat, Insision and Red Harvest. This culminated in their infamous Earache Christmas Party appearance, where the band terrorised both record label and the audience. This exceptionally violent and drunken performance has been captured on the DVD 'Principles and Practices of The Berzerker'. The band continued on to the US after a brief Christmas break to do another full US tour with death metal bands Nile, Napalm Death, Strapping Young Lad and Dark Tranquility. Disaster struck in New York where Gary Thomas had an altercation with a bouncer resulting in a broken foot and cracked vertebrae. The band could not pull out of the tour- There was a week left, and each show had to be played for the band to be able to afford to make their plane flights to the next tour. To solve the problem, Luke Kenny took on playing the drums as well as vocals. The band was assisted by Nile drummer Tony Laureano who played the Carcass cover 'Corporal Jigsore Quandary' each night.
At the end of that tour, the band had ten days in Florida before their headline tour of the UK and Europe began. With no drummer, auditions were organised and the band selected a local drummer to take on tour. The new drummer was required to learn the full headlining tour set in six days [citation needed]. The Berzerker hit the UK for its next round of headlining shows featuring snuff footage, locals being abducted, and audiences getting punched in the face, then headed out to Europe for their first-ever appearance. Finally after 5 months of touring the band headed home.
First DVD, unmasked for the first time (2004)
Luke Kenny decided to focus the off-time into compiling all the band footage he had recorded, producing 'The Principles and Practices of The Berzerker'. The Berzerker DVD ended up being over 4 hours long, consisting of one professionally shot show, another concert-worth of assorted bootleg footage, backstage recordings, band rehearsals, and touring. They even included the recording of both albums (including many unflattering incidents), full interviews with bandmembers, the making of the masks, the making of the artwork, and contributions from fans, including one who had tattooed the dragon logo onto her back. The DVD was recommended by Kerrang as required viewing for aspiring metal bands [citation needed].
The DVD brought with it a change in The Berzerker - for the first time, the bands' faces were unmasked. This brought about a decision by the band to lose the masks altogether.
World of Lies. No more masks. (2005-2006)
With Gary healing in Perth and Matt moving to the UK to join Akercocke, The Berzerker decided to record album no.3 World of Lies over Christmas 2004 with the original lineup from the debut Berzerker album. The band recorded the album spontaneously over a week, with no prior planning - this was in direct opposition to how they've created their albums so far. Another change was that apart from no drummer appearing on the album, all guitars were recorded directly into a laptop via an analog to digital converter without a guitar amp. Subsequent live performances featured Dave Gray, also of Akercocke taking over drumming duties.
(Biography from the official site of Earache Records.)
Trivia
- Rumors have spread in the metal community that the The Berzerker's drummer was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the fastest drummer in the world with 19 beats per second on both hands - just 2bps faster then Tommy Niuman(Disposition). However, this rumor has been deemed false as 19bps still isn't as fast as other drummers who have been included in the record book. [2].
- All of their album covers feature a different interpretation of a steel dragon taking up the majority of the cover. The fourth album cover however, was designed by a fan after the band ran a competition.
Members
- Luke Kenny - Vocals
- Sam - Bass/Guitar/Vocals
- Adrian - Guitar/Bass
- Ed - Guitar
- Jason - Additional Guitar and Bass
Former members
- Gary Thomas - Drums
- Sam aka. "Toby" - Additional vocals on S/T
- Mark - (Live) Bass
Tour members
- Matt Wilcock - Guitar
- Dave Gray - Drums
Discography
- No? (EP) (1996)
- Inextricable Zenith (EP) (1998)
- Broken (EP) (1999)
- Demos 1998 (Special Release via their old Yahoo group) (1999)
- The Berzerker (2000)
- Dissimulate (2002)
- World of Lies (2005)
- Animosity (2007)
Videography
- The Principles and Practices of The Berzerker (DVD) (2004)