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When Anton Kabanen left Battle Beast citing musical differences, it never seemed terribly likely that he would veer off on some unexpected musical tangent. Doing precisely what he has avowed to do since the split, Beast In Black feel very much like the natural continuation of the first two Battle Beast albums, with a sound that is purposefully devoted to flying the heavy metal flag. The best news is that we now have two brilliant bands for the price of one. Berserker kicks off with the band’s titular theme, a vicious and satisfying explosion of balls-out, synth-driven speed metal. It continues through multiple shades of gritty but polished old-school ferocity with uniformly enormous melodies, briefly stopping off to bait the purists with the insane (and bizarrely irresistible) disco-metal knees-up of Crazy, Mad, Insane. Batshit, brilliant and metal as fuck.

Dom Lawson has been writing for Metal Hammer and Prog for over 14 years and is extremely fond of heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee and snooker. He also contributes to The Guardian, Classic Rock, Bravewords and Blabbermouth and has previously written for Kerrang! magazine in the mid-2000s.