SCARLXRD
UK’s incendiary trap metal icon unites the tribes
ELECTROWERKZ, LONDON
of a gritty London venue, worlds are colliding. Metallers in Gojira t-shirts, hip hop devotees in clompy boots and cyber punks wearing medical masks are milling around a small stage, over-stacked with lights. There’s no support act. All eyes are locked on the backdrop, where a huge digital clock is counting down the minutes until Scarlxrd appears to launch his latest album,
Over the last three years, the 24-yearold trap metaller has been prolific, releasing seven albums. He’s built an eclectic fanbase who thrive off the brutal nature of his genre-mashing, and won admirers in high places, most notably Bring Me The Horizon, who’ve chosen him to play their curated date at All Points East festival in May. Tonight’s show is being live-streamed on YouTube, where the rapper launched his career a few years ago, talking to the camera under the moniker Mazzi Maz. Those impossibly cheerful videos mucking about in his bedroom seem a world away from raw nihilism of Scarlxrd’s music and the feverish response it inspires.
As the clock reaches the last 10 seconds, the atmosphere of anticipation is thick and the cramped space in front of the stage has become a battleground of bodies jostling for position. When Scar, accompanied by DJ Jacky P, finally bounds onstage for opener in a distorted fug of warped bass, the reaction is visceral and immediate. By second song a deranged headtrip of ruined guitars, fragmented beats and shredded screams that recalls both Slipknot and hardcore punk–rap crossbreeds Ho99o9, it’s all kicked off. Jacky P has abandoned the decks and is dangling from the pipework and ceiling insulation while Scar orchestrates the mosh below. He’s is clearly an able rapper, switching between vengeful hail-of-bullets delivery and retching up hyper-aggressive shrieks on and Yet he’s heavily backing tracked and there are several occasions where he simply lets the track do the work for him, which feels like a copout. That being said, the crowd don’t seem to care and Scarlxrd appears more interested in maintaining the energy than perfectly recreating his tracks live, an artist writing his own rules while carving a path through the noise.