Good-natured YouTube star turned demonic rapper
Scarlxrd presents one of his more intense 180-degree turns of image and style. Though Marius Listhrop went from creating goofy and humorous video content to briefly fronting the rap-metal act Myth City, his prolific work as
Scarlxrd is significantly shades darker.
Immxrtalisatixn is the eighth collection of
Scarlxrd material since he began releasing frequent mixtapes and albums in late 2016. Clocking in at an hour-and-eight-minutes, the album's 24 tracks are all different variations of eerie melodies, industrial beats, and lyrical flows that alternate between gasps, gulps, and histrionic screams. There's talent behind Listhrop's screaming, and when the aggression momentarily subsides there's plenty of evidence that he's a clever lyricist. In the moments when
Scarlxrd breaks out of his template of scream-rap distress, the results are interesting. The production on "NX LXVE" experiments with sub-bass synth tones and makes more space for intricate flows than the majority of the mostly screamed album. "Ask" is the most daring strike on the entire album, with extended gospel-soul samples and a beat that's a throwback to golden-era '90s hip-hop. Still shouting at top volume,
Scarlxrd makes an unexpected (and possibly unintentional) nod to
Das EFX,
Souls of Mischief, and the like. ~ Fred Thomas