A very vulgar display…
Released by Metalville on 21 September 2018
Reviewed by Jason Guest
Somebody somewhere has a ‘Pantera Groove’ device, a machine in the shape of a human body with a large, head-sized button that morphs into the face of whoever it is that you consider to be the most detestable person in the world that can only be activated by punching it. And in order to elicit the heaviest, grooviest, ball-swellingest tone out of the bastard, you have to punch it. Very hard. In the jaw. With all your might. And the more might one can muster, the meatier the groove shall be. Twenty years into their career with a new vocalist in tow and with their fourth album Entertain Your Force Of Habit about to hit the canvas, Isreal’s groovy gang known as Betzefer evidently pack the punch of many a pill-popping pugilist.
And so, with grimaces adorned and hardcore accusatory fingers armed and ready, ‘One Way To No Way’ begins the ten-track countdown with the grooves slamming straight in and the vocals immediately behind them. With a massive breakdown midway through, the dynamic drive of the track is relentless, the unyielding force underpinning the track ever present for the remainder of the album. While ‘Dead Lines’ is another headbanger destined to have many a crowd surfing, so is the swinging-riffs-aplenty of ‘Ain’t No Party Till You Hurt Somebody’. And from ‘Never Been’ to closer ‘Last Song In The World’, the band is unbending, unwavering in their might and relentless in their determination to swing their massive bollocks as hard as they can against the head-sized button they’ve got their mittens-for-clobbering-clad hands on.
When vocalist and co-founder Avital Tamir left the band in 2015 to devote his time to more folkloric music, Betzefer almost called it quits. New vocalist Aharon Ragoza certainly has the cojones that mainstays Matan Cohen-Grumi and Roey Berman (guitar and drums respectively) and long-serving bassist Rotem Inbar require to fortify and flesh out their reinforced concrete slabs of metal mania. Evidently, this new guy has brought new life into the band and it can be heard in the songs and the performances. A full throttle thrashing attack driven by adrenaline and rage, Entertain Your Force Of Habit sees the band not only completing their first 20 years in style but opening up the next chapter of their career rejuvenated, invigorated, and explosive.
Track list:
- One Way To No Way
- Dead Lines
- Ain’t No Party Till You Hurt Somebody
- Never Been
- Crash
- Light Away
- Truck Leaking Gasoline
- Dying Man
- Hand In Hand To Hell
- Last Song In The World
