The compact cesspool that is Karachi’s metal scene has spawned many great bands over the years. In the old days, Karachi was the birthplace of bands like Hell Dormant, Autopsy Gothic and Soul Vomit. In the last 2 years, new bands like Reckoning Storm, Communal Grave, Cardinal Sin and Ausrine have continued to push the boundaries of Pakistani metal. The beginning of 2009 brought us yet another new band – Berserker. Berserker made waves in January with their song “Altars of Purification,” and despite the sloppy production and the lack of flow between different sections in the song, the bar for brutality in Pakistan was raised. An old school sounding beast, Altars showed immense potential and fast forward almost 2 months later, The Iron Markhor’s co-founder Hassan Umer caught up with Mehtaz Sultan.
- HU: Greetings, Mehtaz! Hope everything is fine on your end. Okay, the first thing I’m gonna ask you is about the band’s name. Aren’t you afraid that people might confuse you with the Australian grindcore band “The Berzerker” ?
MS: And infernal hails to you brother!
Its weird in a way that we decided to coin the name with absolutely no thought of ‘The Berzerker’ in mind and even if we had gone over the whole though process of considering the possible confusions with the Australian Grindcore legends we still would have not changed the name.
Berserker was termed because it fit our musical direction and thinking more perfectly than any other name could have. We aim to be as brutal much along the lines of the mythological prowess that was Berserker.
We borrowed the name Berserker from this anime called ‘Fate Stay night’ where Berserker was an impregnable beast with 13 lives.
People are confusing the name but I believe with time and more original tracks out we will have a differentiated ‘Berserker’ for ourselves with absolutely no confusions with the Australian giants.
- Call me a noob, phony, fake fan, poser or whatever you want (I know how strict you Karachi metalheads are, haha) but I really don’t know how you guys got together, and I think approximately 99.9% of our readers won’t know either, so can you enlighten us humble peasants? Pretty please
Haha, no. You’re definitely one of the most dedicated pure metal heads that I can think of in Pakistan.
We started off back in our A levels in 2007 with 2 piece approach. Me and Tajammul recorded a couple of demos which are available at www.metalhordes.com by the name of ‘sanctity of faith and oblivion’. The skill level was evidently inferior but the approach was always brutal to the core.
Khurram had been my oldest friend and a long running band mate for various experimental projects. He started to chip in with his ideas after the second demo. He worked on a demo which we decided to scrap and then later on played bass/ programmed drums for a symphonic track which we are yet to release.
The three of us were together long before any of us got into extreme metal. It’s more of a bond than a band.
- “More of a bond than a band” Looks like Berserker won’t be splitting up or face any member leaving any time soon! So, which bands would you consider your main influences? The song you guys put up online is a really killer old school sounding beast, but which specific bands really grabbed you by the throat and inspired you guys?
Definitely not!. Additions to the band are very much possible sooner or later, though.
For me and Tajammul Early Sepultra was the first real metal band that we heard and maybe that was the unrelenting sound that attracted us to extreme metal in the first place.
We moved on to Six Feet under and man, Six Feet under was one helluva influence. The thick, meaty guitars, slow tempos and the guttural growls got us into death metal and did we love it. From then on Cannibal Corpse, Necrophagist, Dismember, Entombed, Cryptopsy, Fleshcrawl, Early Behemoth, Wormbat, Nervecell.
Indian bands for me played an immense role: Demonic Resurrection, Narsil, IIIrd Sovereign etc
Pakistani Bands: Messiah, Soul Vomit, Autopsy Gothic, Hell Dormant, Corpsepyre.
There are some trails of Melodic death influences as well such as early Arch enemy, Kalmah, Fall of Serenity and tech melo death bands such as Quo Vadis m/
I hope that pretty much sums up our main influences though it is increasingly hard to name all the bands.
- Wow, never guessed you guys would be fans of melodic death metal or Six Feet Under for that matter! Anyways, your first song “Altars of Purification” had some kickass riffs and a really sweet concept but some of the tempo changes and riffs didn’t flow too well. Do you guys plan on re-recording it for a future full length release?
I for one was a huge fan of melodic death metal but interest in that genre has slowly dissipated. Safe to say, melodic death metal doesn’t move me in the same way it did say 2 years ago.
Can’t say much about the other guys, Khurram for one being quite inclined towards melodic death.
Yes, the riff changes were sudden mainly because I was programming the drums (khurram being not in the country at that time). So yes, I suck at drum programming lol.
We have some new tracks planned and we will be recording them for now with no plans of recording any of the older stuff.
- Cool, cool. So I was reading the lyrics of “Altars..” and good fucking lord, you guys must be walking talking dictionaries! How the hell did you guys come up with that stuff? Can you also interpret them for those of us with an IQ less than 21382398123?
Haha, no. They aren’t lyrics as far as I see them.
I have always been interested in morbid/diabolical poetry and penning down words is very much equivalent to picturing a landscape, a theme, characters, a storyline and then painting it all black- for the depth.
At the end of the day it is poetry that I delve in with passion.
Altars of putrification paints an extremely grim picture of temples/haven/an infernal recluse for a horde of sinister beings born to kill and plunder. The concept puts them down in one extreme end of the ethereal continuum where they lie to oppose all that is good and just.
Our music sides with that dark, sinister, evil side and narrates. The point being you can never overcome the creatures of darkness something made quite obvious by the closing paragraph.
The lyrics paints layers over layers of describing the imagery, the surroundings that make up the darkened temples.
The apparent wordplay and depth is something we learned from bands like Behemoth, fascinated by their medieval imagery.
- So, do you guys plan on hitting up some small hangouts in Karachi with gigs and shit?
Yes, we do. Discrepancies in University timings inhibits our jams but we will definitely we hitting gigs with an occasional goat slaughter to go with it xD
- Haha, awesome. Speaking of Karachi how’s the scene in Karachi? Looks pretty good, Communal Grave, Semideus, Cardinal Sin, Ausrine, Soul Vomit and other good bands from there.
The scene is good but it had seen better days back in 2002.
I love Communal Grave and Cardinal Sin is an absolute ear candy.
The new Soul Vomit track is beyond kick ass.
Live performances are restricted to Communal Grave and Soul Vomit though. It’s not a surprise though since all the other bands are projects lacking musicians to complete a live set.
There were some metal core bands playing here till last year, lol. But then again that was metal core and I won’t really care.
Cardinal sin is one band that I really fucking want to play live. They lack a drummer and I am sure they can find one, that would be m/
- Haha, everyone wants to play live with Cardinal Sin for some reason. What’s YOUR reason?
The very brutal death appeal and those sick tempo changes m/
- Haha, nice. Well, what do you think of the Lahore scene?
Lahore had a kick ass scene back with Seth then Incision.
Seth is still considered to be the tightest metal act in this country, period and Atif death to be the sickest growler/screamer.
I had a personal liking for Corpsepyre even though they generated a lot of criticism in the Lahore circuit.
That’s about it, i suppose.
- 2009 has been an awesome year for metal so far. Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Cattle Decap released kickass albums and Devourment, Obituary, and a shitload of other great bands are expected to release albums this year. Which albums are you looking forward to this year?
CC’s Evisceration Plague has to be the only album that I actually after Tomb of the Mutiliated- Corpsegrinder hate, I remain xD
Other then that, 2009 is all set to be a comeback year for old school death.
The new Morbid Angel album I read somewhere about. If that is true then my expectations are to concluded right here.
The new Vomitory and Vader albums m/ m/
- Well, what does 2009 have in store for YOUR band? :p
Haha, new tracks and possibly a chance to play a gig.
More brutality, diabolical poetry and an animated video with the help of Aneeq Zaman (Ex Autopsy Gothic).
- Cool, cool. Well, I’m running out of questions, so any final words before I devour you… ermm, wrap up this interview?
Hmm, reminds me of all the Khaleej Time interviews I used to read with the final words, lol.
Fucking hate metalcore, destroy metalcore, eradicate metalcore from the face of this wretched planet.
Bangladesh pwns our and India’s ass when it comes to death metal.
Stay pale!!
The Iron Markhor would like to thank Mehtaz Sultan for taking time out of his busy schedule for giving us an interview. The Markhor fully supports Berserker and their music!
