Artist Spotlight: Shame

Last week we spoke about the wonderful rise in guitar led feel good pop music with bands like The Modern Strangers. However what happens when you’re angry, emotional, and getting ever trodden on by the government as a young person? You turn to punk/post-punk and aggressive rock. South-London’s best answer to this comes in the form of five piece post-punks Shame.

Currently resting comfortably on four officially released tracks, all of which just as brilliantly wild as the last. The group’s original double A-side featured tracks ‘Gold Hole’ and ‘The Lick’. ‘Gold Hole’ delivers the amazingly steady aggressiveness that the band could be labelled with. Featuring a constant bass line that is reminiscent of bands like FIDLAR with vocals and guitar to match, the raw power ‘Gold Hole’ provides is intense.

Then comes ‘The Lick’, “This is how it starts” says lead Charlie Steen before one of the most memorable bass riffs in modern music kicks in. ‘The Lick’ really kicks the take no prisoners style that Shame will undoubtedly be known for. Hitting out against the ‘four chord future’ and those who find their new music through NME’s recommendation, before being recommended by NME themselves, ‘relatable not debatable’. This track isn’t your standard fast paced loud tracks, in fact it has a more blues vibe before it’s end explosion with the lyric ‘Bathe me in blood’.

‘Tasteless’ was the next release, which undoubtedly built upon their repertoire. Instantly hooked into this song I couldn’t get enough, these guys are masters of taking an already fierce sound and making it sound feral. “I like you better when you’re not around” is a lyric everyone can get behind on a personal level and the break before the end only emphasises how much fun this band are.

‘Visa Vulture’, ahh this song. Taking no prisoners, completely untamed, delivering searing lines onto Theresa May and the crude destruction of her. Theres nothing more I can say about this other than that it’s punk art in it’s simplest form.

Shame got known most for their live performances, for a while people believed they were a solely live act. I had the absolute pleasure of seeing them in Guildford’s Boileroom where they tore the roof off the place. Sweat, probably blood, probably tears, and a stage invasion made that gig extremely memorable. If you have a chance to see them live the entirely unhinged nature of the shows is a marvellous thing. Check them out both recorded and live, I’d whole heartedly recommend it.

Shame are: