The Berzerker

The Berzerker was an extreme metal band from Melbourne, Australia and was formed in 1995. The band's music, heavily influenced by older death metal and grindcore, can be characterized as a fusion of these with speedcore, and gabber. The band's founding member Luke Kenny described the band's style as industrial death metal.

The Berzerker has produced five full length albums, The Berzerker (2000), Dissimulate (2002), World of Lies (2005), Animosity (2007) and The Reawakening (2008). These were released through Earache Records, with the exception of the last album, which was self-released through Berserker Industries. During the early part of their career as a live act, band members were identified only as The Vocalist, The Guitarist, The Bassist and The Drummer, distinguishable on stage only by the masks they wore. However, the group eventually abandoned this device, after the masks became unhygienic with age, and to avoid unfavorable comparisons with Slipknot.

A DVD documentary, The Principles and Practices of The Berzerker (2004), includes several hours of live concert footage, as well as the first public images of the band members without their masks.

Berzerker (comics)

Berzerker (Ray Carter) is a fictional character, a mutant appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. His first and last appearance was in X-Factor #11 (December 1986). Despite only appearing in one issue, Berzerker has so far appeared in two X-Men animated series, both of which in minor recurring roles.

Fictional character biography

Berzerker was a member and the leader of The Tunnelers, an offshoot group of Morlocks who hated Callisto's main group and dubbed them Drain Dwellers. Initially a group of ten, six of the Tunnelers were killed when the Marauders were sent to kill the Morlocks. Berzerker and three others survived the attack, only to get in another battle with Beast and Iceman, thinking they were Marauders too. The battle ends when the Tunnelers figure out that the X-Factor members are not their enemies.

Joining X-Factor at their base, the Tunnelers find out about their hosts' mock mutant hunter identities. The Tunnelers eventually leave hoping to find a new home in New Jersey. They ran into a human street gang called the Savage Wolf gang who tried to rob them. The Tunnelers fought back, ending in the deaths of the Tunneler Blowhard and two of the three gang members. They then got in a confrontation with the police where fellow Tunneler and Berzerker's love interest, Scaleface, was shot dead. Cyclops and Jean Grey arrived to save the remaining two Tunnelers, but it was too late; Berzerker was enraged by the loss of Scaleface and vowed revenge on all humanity. Before Cyclops could reason with him Berzerker let out a giant energy attack at him, blaming X-Factor for the Tunnelers' destruction. Cyclops fired back, overpowering Berzerker's initial shot. The optic blast from Cyclops knocked Berzerker into a river, electrocuting himself with his own powers resulting in his death. Masque was the only Tunneler that survived.