LIVE REVIEW: Wargasm @ Stylus, Leeds

A large crowd was gathered for tonight’s gig at Stylus in Leeds. Looking around the room you can see a blend of characters ranging from your a-typical metalhead all the way to the most feminine looking persons, a strange contrast out of context but once knowing it all begins to make sense. Not only were people here to see metal-rave duo WARGASM, but their opening acts KNIFE BRIDE, who self-dub themselves as “slut-metal”, and SCENE QUEEN, an artist who goes to prove that metal goes perfectly with all things pretty in pink…See what we did there? In a nutshell: metal music and the metal mindsight can come in any and all forms. And it’s a beautiful sight.

KNIFE BRIDE are pretty new on the metal scene after only debuting live last year but already we know who they are and what they stand for: being themselves whilst not being afraid to touch on the more serious topics of everyday life. From the moment they appeared onstage everyone was captivated and hyped, an exciting band to keep an eye out for.

Rating: 8/10

And as for SCENE QUEEN, well if you don’t know that name by now what rock have you been hiding under? Opening her set with an intro of Barbie Girl and encouraging a “twerkle pit” was certainly a statement. What followed included, but not limited to, a cover of KATY PERRY’s I Kissed A Girl, a crowd loudly screaming along to Barbie & Ken, and not one, but two (!) performances of Pink Rover.

Rating: 9/10

It was undeniable that everyone was hyped, and that energy certainly wasn’t about to slow down. Opening things off with Super Fiend, WARGASM and the crowd wasted no time whatsoever in going crazy with the atmosphere becoming incredibly energetic within just seconds of coming onstage. Following up with D.R.I.L.D.O that comes with the ever-catchy chant of “drink, fuck, fight, love”, whether you’re a fan or not, you know what the duo stand for and you know that they don’t care what you think.

Going in blind and hearing that chant might come as a little bit of a shock, but can you imagine going to a show and hearing these two questions within minutes of each other: “Do you want a lap dance?” and “Do you ever just want to kill somebody”….Why not both at the same time? “Only at WARGASM“ should be a saying in it’s own right.

There was never a dull moment throughout the evening and the setlist was filled with anthems from Pyro Pyro to Salma Hayek to Rage All Over to Backyard Bastards. Again, you can’t say that they lie for what they stand for: “Angry songs for sad people”? Hell yeah! Also, can someone please make a compilation of final girls and female antagonists for Backyard Bastards. Seriously, it would be so powerful.

For the encore they off course came back with ever iconic Spit, which if you didn’t know was the song that blew up in summer 2020 that caused the duo to come on everybody’s radar. What commenced was mosh pits, circle pits and crowd-surfers galore as everything screamed along to the lyrics with Sam heavily interacting with the crowd by, well, joining in.

Going back to what we were saying; metal comes in many forms. It’s okay if it’s not for you but you cannot deny the power and beauty in people doing what they want in their own way and having the best time with it. WARGASM represent that accurately and it’s beautiful.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Leeds from Emma Stone Photo here:

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