Ferg Berserk : Rage & The Sound of Breaking The Cycle

Written by Frequency ATL

Interview by Trudie Storck

Photos by Ellen Arden

Atlanta’s underground metal scene runs on volatility and raw emotions funneled into something feral and blown-out. Few artists embody that ferocity as vividly as Ferg Berserk.

A rap-metal hybridist pulling equally from Dirty South trap, hardcore catharsis, martial-arts discipline, and raw emotional exorcism; Ferg Berserk is emerging as one of the city’s most electrifying new voices in trap metal. His music is bass heavy and grinding, but it’s also deeply human; a place where rage, grief, and self-interrogation all collide on the same track.

Having grown up in Atlanta and steeped in its musical DNA, Ferg has built early momentum with shows at Masquerade, DIY warehouse performances, and various hybrid bills across the city. Frequency caught up with him to talk about lineage, anger, masculinity, martial arts, and the rupturing sound of a sub-genre taking shape in Atlanta’s shadowy corners.

Launching In The Atlanta Underground

Before Ferg Berserk had a name, he had a crisis. He had dropped out of college as an accounting major, grieving the loss of a close friend in 2019, and staring into the same shapeless existence facing many early-20-somethings.

What he did have, however, was a lifelong connection to music — the “weird” music he gravitated toward as a kid, the Atlanta hip-hop giants he grew up listening to, and the metal bands he discovered as a teenager.

“As a kid, I was always into weird music,” he says. “Being from Atlanta, I started getting into Young Thug, Future, and Gunna. But then I discovered Avenged Sevenfold when I was around 15 or 16, and that changed everything for me.”

Early on he bought FL Studio and began hopping on YouTube beats. But it wasn’t until he started really paying attention to instrumentation that he discovered a clear path to his sound.

Inspired by Avenge Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates and M. Shadows, known for their fusion of metal core aggression blended with emo-touched melodies, Ferg started carving out his own sound and sharpening his lyrical style.

Trying to pin down Ferg Berserk’s sound is a little like trying to bottle a riot. His songs swing between serrated metal riffs, Southern rap cadences, guttural screams, and phrases that land like emotional concrete bricks. When asked about his process, he notes that sometimes it starts with a riff, sometimes a beat, and sometimes a single bar that he can’t get out of his head.

“I draw inspiration from everything, even martial arts.” he says. “The discipline, the mental approach, the repetition, all of that affects how I write.”

As he’s grown, his guitar has become a bigger part of the process. He’s been playing for three years now, writing riffs he hands off to guitarists to refine. But beneath every method is a core thematic engine: grief, frustration, masculinity, identity, and the ongoing work of becoming a better version of yourself.

“Music was therapy at first,” he says. “But learning guitar, learning the technical side, it shifted. It became less about the emotional release and more about building something. Its been really fulfilling to be able to have another hand in the creation of my music.”

Anger, Vulnerability, and Invigoration

On tracks like “Go Berserk,” “Already Dead,” “Dirty,” “Stand!,” and his latest single “Fed Up!,” Ferg wedges vulnerability right into the heart of rage. Much of his music takes aim at personal loss, societal failures, masculine repression, the slow grind of self-work, and the systems he believes to be broken — systems he’s trying not to perpetuate.

“As men, we’re taught to bury our emotions,” he says. “That’s damaged me, for sure. My music is a way of working through that. I want to inspire people to feel angry because there’s plenty to be angry about, but that anger should be channeled into motivation.”

There’s one word he returns to over and over: invigoration.

“That’s the feeling I want people to walk away with,” he says. “They should feel invigorated and inspired. Whatever is on their mind, whatever they want to do they should go do that shit.”

The Sound and Visual Design of Ferg Berserk

Live, his setup is minimalist: a microphone, a DJ, and backing tracks that leave him to carry the full weight of stage presence alone. His 25-minute set at Masquerade’s Altar was a personal turning point for him. He spent weeks in the gym to ensure he could withstand the screaming, stomping, and sprinting it required.

“I don’t have a band helping fill the space,” he says. “So, I have to do everything myself.”

He’s working on changing that. His drummer, Duane Hamilton, is locked in, but the rest of the live lineup is in the audition phase.

Recording, he often tracks vocals through a Shure SM58. Lately, his engineers, Dylan Riner and Trey Isbell, have been experimenting with dual-mic chains, an Ashton Spirit Stereo Pair, to capture a more “live in the studio” sound.

His guitar setup is unapologetically DIY: Guitar Rig amp and effects modeling software, a handful of donated pedals, and his black Ibanez GRGR131, the first and only guitar he’s owned, recently revitalized after a long-overdue string change.

Visually, artist Blake Pennington and Markus Loewe are the architects behind much of Ferg’s artwork. With “Dirty,” “Scared,” and “Insanity” being attributed to Pennington. Across the three works, Ferg transforms from a melting acid-drenched figure, to skeletal character mid-disintegration, to a full on skeleton king with his locs turned to chains — a body-horror evolution that mirrors his sonic arc.

From GSU to May Fest: The Rise

Atlanta’s hybrid scenes thrive on collective uplift. For Ferg, this city is defined by people showing up — to follow each other, repost each other, collaborate, or simply be in the same room.

“Showing up to shows means a lot,” he says. “Seeing a room full of people who stay for every act — that means everything — and even if someone can’t give you money, they’re like, ‘Hey, I’ll shout you out. Want to do a show? Want to collab?’ That’s the culture in Atlanta.”

Ferg reminisces fondly about his first show: a music showcase at Georgia State University that opened the doors to new opportunities, inspiring him to continue performing and to find his stage presence. What followed were more opportunities and bigger stages.

Most recently the Four Play Showcase at Masquerade’s Altar, Trap Metal Eternal at 529, and a surprise pop up in at DadaLab in Austin, Texas. His performance at the inaugural AtlantimeFest with MoFetti was a dream moment for Ferg, surrounded by fans in anime costumes and artists he’s admired for years.

But it’s his performance with Electric Gemini, performing a blistering cover of “Know Your Enemy” by Rage Against the Machine, that remains one of his most treasured show memories. “That Is probably one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had on stage. That was so awesome,” he says.

On Another Note

Outside of music, Ferg’s world is just as kinetic. He grew up performing martial arts, has recently rediscovered kickboxing, and applies the same discipline to his creative practice. He games religiously — Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring being lifelong staples — and he’s active in Atlanta’s anime and cosplay community.

He also has strong culinary opinions: MF Sushi for spicy tuna, The Bando for atmosphere and crack wings, and Chipotle for tour-day survival.

Whats Next for Ferg Berserk?

He teases that 2026 may hold a few surprises: “We’re cooking up some stuff,” he says. “Maybe shows. Maybe more. I won’t speak on it until it’s set in stone.”

Collaboration fuels Ferg Berserk. Locally, he’s crossed paths with Electric Gemini, Soufside Marie, and Salamander X. Currently, he is building a track with Big Mama German, and working on new material with guitarist Andrei Botezat of SalamanderX. One can only speculate what he might be up to next.

With one last show for 2025— a December 6th warehouse night with Six Paths Entertainment, which will take place before the publication of this article —  he plans on taking a brief hiatus to finalize his band and level up his live show.

Also on the agenda, Ferg is armed with an arsenal of unreleased tracks and his sights set on a March release date for a new EP that is heavy, raw, and real. “The EP is about shadow work and confronting the parts of yourself that you don’t like. Its probably the most vulnerable that I’ve ever been in my music, but there is a lot of value in expressing those feelings that are often difficult to sit with. I’m excited to put it out and hopefully it resonates with someone out there and helps them with their battles,” he says.

There’s definitely a sense that something is shifting, not just around Ferg, but around the city itself. A wave of Atlanta based rap-rock, nu-metal-adjacent, hardcore-influenced artists are bubbling up and boiling over.

And only inches away from his dream feature on rap-metal’s modern lineage — Denzel Curry, Jasiah, and Scarlxrd — his final message to those wanting to join the scene is simple, and one he repeats often:

“Whatever you wanna do, do it. Get inspired. Try to be a better version of yourself, and make the world a better place by doing it.”

Follow @frequency.atl for local music news, interviews, and more.