Wargasm's Venom: a fun as hell, genre-splicing, relentlessly entertaining ride, and one of 2023's essential debut albums

Wargasm have justified the hype with one of 2023's best debut albums

Wargasm in 2023
(Image: © Haris Nukem)

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

In the five years since they bounced head-first into an unsuspecting metal scene, Wargasm have already racked up millions of streams, played main stage sets at the likes of Download, Louder Than Life and Bloodstock, and nabbed supporting slots with everyone from Babymetal to Limp Bizkit. Now, with a debut full-length album to finally show for their efforts, it’s time to nut up or shut up – and the genre-splicing duo have delivered and then some.

Bashing together elements of punk, metal, EDM and hip hop with the vigour and recklessness of a toddler who’s just downed 12 cans of Red Bull, Venom is
a relentlessly entertaining ride, driven by sheer energy and kept on course by the two-piece force of personality that is Milkie Way and Sam Matlock. 

Sam’s deranged screams bouncing off Milkie’s croons, wails and yelps makes for an electrifying dynamic, as the album leaps from the brooding, throbbing industrial rock of Death Rattle and Modern Love through to Ride The Thunder’s pulsating, bouncy EDM and juddering groove metal, to the peppy, Prodigy-powered drum’n’bass of Do It So Good and Feral’s jagged nu metal swagger. S.A.D. sounds like The Mad Capsule Markets produced by Trent Reznor, while Fred Durst’s typically bullish cameo on Bang Ya Head is brilliant fun, the Bizkit legend dropping daft but earwormy bars over massive, groovy riffs and glitchy electronica.

The best thing about all of this? As great as Venom is, there’s still potential to refine some of the ideas the duo are toying with. ‘We’re Wargasm! Wargasm sound like THIS!’ declares Milkie on outro track Sombre Goodbye, which teases an emotionally wrought send-off before exploding into a final flurry of riffs and screams. What Wargasm sound like is an absolute riot, and they’ve just dropped one of 2023’s essential debut albums.

Merlin Alderslade
Executive Editor, Louder

Merlin moved into his role as Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has previously written for the likes of Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site. 

Read more
Alt Blk Era
"The perfect soundtrack for moshers who like to party...this feels like the beginning of something special." Alt Blk Era's Rave Immortal has officially announced one of the most exciting new bands in alternative music
Bloodywood in 2024
"Nu Delhi is an exhilarating rush that should see Bloodywood’s star rise still further." India's biggest metal sensations have produced another iron-clad rager with their second studio album
Spiritbox on the cover of the new issue of Metal Hammer
"A band who could contend with Bring Me The Horizon and Sleep Token as the next zeitgeist-setting metal act." Spiritbox have unleashed another absolute stunner with Tsunami Sea
Lambrini Girls
Lambrini Girls unpick all of modern Britain’s shortcomings and emerge as punk's most vital new disruptors on the furious Who Let The Dogs Out
Architects in 2024
Architects sound absolutely livid on The Sky, The Earth & All Between - and it's made for one of the best metal albums of 2025 so far
Cradle Of Filth Press Shot 2025
Twiddly Iron Maiden harmonies, thrash riffs, horror, rapping (kind of) and sexy goth allure: The Screaming Of The Valkyries is peak Cradle Of Filth
Latest in
Queen posing for a photograph in 1978
"Freddie’s ideas were off the wall and cheeky and different, and we tended to encourage them, but sometimes they were not brilliant.” Queen's Brian May reveals one of Freddie Mercury's grand ideas that got vetoed by the rest of the band
Mogwai
“The concept of cool and uncool is completely gone, which is good and bad… people are unashamedly listening to Rick Astley. You’ve got to draw a line somewhere!” Mogwai and the making of prog-curious album The Bad Fire
Adrian Smith performing with Iron Maiden in 2024
Adrian Smith names his favourite Iron Maiden song, even though it’s “awkward” to play
Robert Smith, Lauren Mayberry, Bono
How your purchase of albums by The Cure, U2, Chvrches and more on Record Store Day can help benefit children living in war zones worldwide
Cradle Of Filth performing in 2021 and Ed Sheeran in 2024
Cradle Of Filth’s singer claims Ed Sheeran tried to turn a Toys R Us into a live music venue
The Beatles in 1962
"The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have?" Record shop owner finds 1962 Beatles' audition tape that a British label famously decided wasn't good enough to earn Lennon and McCartney's band a record deal
Latest in Review
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Sex Pistols at the RAH
"Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
Arch Enemy posing in an alleyway
Arch Enemy promised they'd throw out the rule book for Blood Dynasty. They didn't go quite that far, but this is the boldest album of the Alissa White-Gluz era - and it kicks ass
The Darkness press shot
"Not just one of the best British rock albums of all time, but one of the best debut albums ever made": That time The Darkness added a riot of colour to a grey musical landscape
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux Deluxe Box Set
“The live recording sees the piece come to life… amid the sepulchral gloom there are moments of real beauty”: Roger Waters' Super Deluxe Box Set of his Dark Side Of The Moon Redux
Cradle Of Filth Press Shot 2025
Twiddly Iron Maiden harmonies, thrash riffs, horror, rapping (kind of) and sexy goth allure: The Screaming Of The Valkyries is peak Cradle Of Filth