The Swedish Melodeath Supergroup presents to be a new force to be reckoned with in 2023 with new hard hitting record “Chaos Will Reign”. This may be the heaviest album I’ve reviewed so far this year and vastly impressed me. I hadn’t listened to these guys but a couple times so I came in to this review pretty much blind. The lead songwriter sent comments and an introduction to the album that intrigued me.
BERZERKER LEGION was founded in 2016 by guitarists Tomas Elofsson (Hypocrisy) and Alwin Zuur (Asphyx) with a vision to create death metal of the most belligerent quality, they recruited a line-up of solid well-known musicians consisting of James Stewart (Vader) on drums, Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath) on vocals and Fredrik Isaksson (Dark Funeral) on bass to complete the Legion.
Alwin Zuur (guitars/songwriter) comments: “During the recent years Tomas and I met each other at shows and festivals regularly. Much of our conversations were about music and styles. During these meetings we found out that we really had a lot of common musical interests.”
“Music wise our debut album ‘Obliterate the Weak’ displays the perfect balance between brutality, melody and harmony. Being a fan of the early 90’s Swedish Gothenburg style, with bands like At The Gates, Eucharist, A Canorous Quintet, as well as being a die-hard fan of brutal old school death metal style with bands like Bolt Thrower, Obituary, I have always wanted to write songs showing a mix of such different death metal genres.
With our new album “Chaos Will Reign” we have further developed ourselves in our typical musical mix of melody and brutality. “Chaos Will Reign” sounds more professional, complete, massive and powerful thanks to Jonas Kjellgren’s production . It has become the logical successor, a huge step forward compared to our debut album “Obliterate the Weak”.”
“Chaos Will Reign” is a sonic blast of 90’s Death Metal and Extreme elements that settle into a speedy groove. This album is an assault on the senses and delivers pounding tracks time after time with clinical beats and extended range Death Growls. This album vastly foreshadows the last album in production quality and modernity that falls in line with more popular sounds in Death Metal today. It is as if Amon Amarth, At the Gates, and Devildriver had a speedy baby. The riffs are chuggy, fast, and groovy switching it up from track to track to add flair and variation. The aggression and desperation of battle drip through this record. My favorite track “Choirs of Anguish” is 90’s Metal to the T with modern speed and pummeling instrumentation. There is a great at least 8 second vocal fry scream on this that stunned me. Pettersson’s range is staggeringly good and can go toe to toe with the young guns in Extreme vocals. The solo is surprisingly melodic and just tasty. There’s also Fleshgod-like orchestration underneath that I absolutely love. Any music that makes me feel like the Gates of Hell are opening for celestial war is going to stick with me, and this whole album just has that feel. The whole album is just really well composed and flows expertly. These guys know what they are doing with this genre. As a drummer, I find the drums to be absolute perfection to the highest level of technicality and speed without losing the raw sound of Death Metal drums. They just do not stop and are a force of nature on “Chaos Will Reign”. There is something so nostalgic throughout this record. Some of the songs have groovier parts in the guitars while keeping complete aggression that reminds me of Pantera. It’s just a great sound that keeps you coming back for more.
This is one of my favorite Death Metal albums of the year by far, and I can’t wait for everyone to positively experience this album as I have. I am not the biggest Death Metal fan, but this album has inspired me to seek out more bands like Berzerker Legion. I am super impressed by this band and would love to experience this music live. I highly recommend this album for fans of Cattle Decapitation, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Dimmu Borgir, and Melodeath in general.
Rating: 9/10
Comes out October 27., 2023 via Listenable Records
Metal Valkyrie Reviews 