Beast In Black - Berserker album review

Former Battle Beast linchpin runs with a new pack

Cover art for Beast In Black - Berserker album

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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
Writer

Dom Lawson began his inauspicious career as a music journalist in 1999. He wrote for Kerrang! for seven years, before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine in 2007. His primary interests are heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee, snooker and despair. He is politically homeless and has an excellent beard.