Go Beserk!

First off, the Vikings get massive points for their knowledge of history and word origins. The word "berserk" is from the old Norse, meaning the Vikings' greatest warriors, a suitably forbidding painting of whom serves as the album's cover. However, the group doesn't really do justice to either band name or album title; the ramalama punk-pop of Go Berserk! is unfailingly entertaining in the best Ramones/Undertones tradition, but it's not nearly wild-eyed enough to live up to the billing. Let's just point out that one of the Norwegian band's best songs is actually a cover of the Bay City Rollers hit "Let's Go." Covers of Cheap Trick's anthem "Surrender" and "Just Head" by the Boston punk obscurities the Nervous Eaters are also worthy additions to poppy originals like "My Friend's Little Sister" and "Summer of Hate." This compilation, gathering just about everything the short-lived group recorded, is a guaranteed fun time.