This time last year, London based Wargasm were relatively unknown in the music community, but their singles crept their way onto Spotify streaming playlists and into the ears of many a music fan and their reputation has since only got bigger and bigger. A lot of their popularity has been gained from their blistering live performances at festivals over the summer including the “Download Pilot” and “Slam Dunk” to name just a couple. After gaining a stellar reputation, they embark on their first ever UK tour and start off in a sold out Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff’s premiere live music venue.
It’s a surprise to everyone when they take the stage as almost half the crowd are stood in the smoking area. That is until the synths and the bass kick in and everybody from outside rushes in to get the best view of the front. Released in the early hours of this morning, new song Scratchcard Feeling gets its debut right at the start of the set and by the reaction it gets, is already a clear fan favourite.
The duelling vocals and screams between Milkie Way and Sam Matlock battle it out in a way that is never anything less than totally thrilling. This follows on the equally infectious “Selma Hayek” which sees the two getting throwing themselves into everything, in an increasingly sweltering room. It’s hard to confine Wargasm down to one particular genre really. There’s the obvious rock/metal category you could put them in, but you’ve also got elements of nu-metal, emo but also dance and indie as well, sometimes even in the same song. This is probably most evident in “Rage All Over” which has more going on in a single track than most bands do in their entire career.
We also get the first taste of a brand new song with the wonderful working title of “Drilldo” which is a heck of a lot of fun. Within the space of three blistering minutes you get a full on guitar solo from Matlock along with a proper dance beat drop. By the second chorus everybody is already chanting along to the tune of “I just want to Drink, Fuck Fight, Love” and you can tell that in other venues it’s going to go down as equally as well. The all too brief set is scattered with singles throughout the short career so far. “Pyro Pyro” comes at you like a ten tonne truck and “Gold, Gold, Gold” builds up and up culminating in a wonderful culmination of riffs that span everything from Pantera to Metallica in the space of 30 seconds. Their cover of NERD’s “Lapdance” is a big highlight, coming to the front even more so in a live setting.
It’s no surprise that the biggest reaction of the night comes from their final track and their breakthrough single “Spit”. There’s enough energy in the song to pretty much power Blackpool illuminations for the entire year. It sounds like the younger offspring of “The Prodigy” who has just downed a can of red bull and thrown themselves into war. They’re already booked to support bands including Creeper and Enter Shikari across the next few months including festival slots notably on the main stage at Download. On their current trajectory, you can expect them to be playing in much bigger venues in the very near future.