The Berzerker

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The Berzerker
Origin Melbourne, Australia
Genre(s) Industrial death metal
Years active 1995 - present
Label(s) Earache Records
Associated acts Akercocke
Abramelin
Plague
The Wolves
Mystic Insight
Devolved
Alarum
Website [1]
Members
Luke Kenny
Jay Lacey
Former members
Sam Bean
Matt Wilcock
Dave Gray
Gary Thomas
Ed Lacey
Matt Racovalis

The Berzerker is an extreme metal band from Melbourne, Australia. The band's music, heavily influenced by older death metal and grindcore, can be characterized as a fusion of death metal, industrial, and speedcore with a touch of gabba techno. The band's founding member Luke Kenny describes the band's style as industrial death metal.

The Berzerker has so far released four full length albums, The Berzerker (2000), Dissimulate (2002), World of Lies (2005) and Animosity (2007), all through Earache Records. During the early part of their career as a live act, band members were identified only as The Vocalist, The Guitarist, The Bassist and The Drummer, distinguishable on stage only by the intricate monster masks they wore. However, the group has since abandoned this device.

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 from broadcast for reasons such as the possible epileptic fit-inducing imagery contained in the video "Forever", and the horrific imagery of "Reality". The latter features graphic images of cadavers and body parts, along with appearances from the band themselves.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Beginnings and the first album (1995-2000)

The Berzerker first gained the attention of worldwide metal audiences through popular remixes of songs by death metal bands Deicide and Morbid Angel. Earache signed the act, then consisting only of Luke Kenny as a one-man DJ act. Kenny had previously been a drummer in various Melbourne bands including an early death metal group called Mystic Insight but after suffering serious injuries in a motor vehicle accident had been forced to give up playing.

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 Bean, who recorded guitar parts, as well as backing vocals. Also enlisted was another Sam contributing backing vocals, dubbed "Toby" due to Bean's seniority. Guitarists Jason and Ed Lacey from local metal band The Wolves were also recruited, 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. [2] 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 because of the gore in Reality, and the flashing images in Forever (flashing images that could cause seizures to people with epilepsy).

[edit] New members, the second album and intense touring (2001-2003)

The Berzerker had their first full U.S. 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, drawn from Melbourne band Alarum, 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 now lost with the departure of the live act. However, the arrival of two replacement members injected new life into the band – drummer Gary Thomas from Perth band Plague and guitarist Matt Wilcock from Melbourne death metal band Abramelin, now currently in Akercocke.

With the arrival of these new members The Berzerker set about recording their follow up album Dissimulate. The song 'No-one Wins' was also released as a video. It was claimed that Thomas' drumming on this song was considered for submission to the Guinness Book of Records as fastest drumming performance and while the band has since dismissed this as a fan-fueled rumour, it was included in official press releases at the time [3]. 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] before heading 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 an infamous Earache Christmas Party appearance, where the band terrorised both record label and the audience. This exceptionally violent and drunken performance was 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 Nile, Napalm Death, Strapping Young Lad and Dark Tranquillity. Disaster struck in New York however when Thomas had an altercation with a bouncer that resulted in a broken foot and cracked vertebrae. The band could not pull out of the tour as there was still a week left, and each show had to be played to allow them to afford to make plane flights to the next tour. To solve the problem, Kenny took on playing the drums as well as vocals. Nile drummer Tony Laureano played the Carcass cover "Corporal Jigsore Quandary" each night.

At the end of that tour, the band spent 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 there. Finally after five months of touring the band headed home.

[edit] First DVD, unmasked for the first time (2004)

Luke Kenny decided to focus the downtime into compiling all the footage he had recorded of the band, producing a DVD titled The Principles and Practices of The Berzerker. This DVD ended up being over four hours long, consisting of one professionally shot show, another concert-worth of assorted bootleg footage, backstage recordings, band rehearsals, and touring. Also included was documentary-style footage of the recording of both albums (including many unflattering incidents), full interviews with band members, the making of the masks and 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{fact}.

The DVD brought with it a change in The Berzerker - for the first time, the band members' faces were unmasked. Following this, a decision was made to lose the masks altogether.

[edit] World of Lies (2005-2006)

With Thomas healing in Perth and Wilcock moving to the UK to join Akercocke, The Berzerker decided to record the third album World of Lies over Christmas 2004 with the original lineup from the debut album. It was recorded spontaneously over a week, with no prior planning in direct opposition to how they had created albums in the past. In other changes, all guitar tracks were recorded directly into a laptop via an analog to digital converter without a guitar amp and no live drumming featured on the album. Subsequent live performances featured Dave Gray of Akercocke taking over drumming duties.

(Biography from the official site of Earache Records.)

[edit] Tour members

  • Luke Kenny - Vocals
  • Todd Hansen - Drums
  • Damien Palmer - Bass
  • Ed Lacey - Guitar
  • Martin Bermheden - Guitar

[edit] Recording members

  • Luke Kenny - Vocals, Programming
  • Jason V - Guitar/Bass on (The Berzerker, World of Lies, Animosity)
  • Sam Bean - Guitar/Bass (Self Titled, Dissimulate, World of Lies)
  • Ed Lacey - Guitar/Bass (The Berzerker, World of Lies)
  • Toby (Sam) - Additional Vocals on (The Berzerker)
  • Adrian - Guitar/Bass (World of Lies)
  • Matt Wilcock - Guitar (Dissimulate)
  • Gary Thomas - Drums (Dissimulate)

[edit] Past members

  • Sam Bean - Bass
  • Dave Gray - Drums
  • Matt Wilcock - Guitar
  • Gary Thomas - Drums

[edit] Discography

[edit] Videography

  • The Principles and Practices of The Berzerker (DVD) (2004)

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Berzerker
Luke Kenny · Jason V
Tour Members: Dave Gray · Matt Wilcock · Mark
Discography
Albums and Compilations
DVDs
The Principles and Practices of the Berzerker
EPs
Full of Hate · Inextricable Zenith · Broken · Animosity EP