By Why no one has called an album Songs of Praise before Shame is a fucking mystery but it couldn’t belong to anyone other than this incredible band.
Shame are a band at the forefront of the punk revolution. 2017 was an incredible year for them and with this album release, it looks like 2018 will be even better.
Opening with new track ‘Dust on Trial’ they instantly have set the album off to a mental start. Their explosive nature certainly hasn’t been lost as they burst into their prior released tracks ‘Concrete’ and ‘One Rizla’. With re-recordings of their old songs, ‘The Lick’ and ‘Tasteless’ the band have solidified what they want and where they’re going.
The second half of the album doesn’t slow down either. The first track on the B side ‘Donk’ feels like something straight out of 70s punk with a power hungry bass and various screaming in the background. ‘Gold Hole’, another song with a prior release, also got a re-recording and remains one of the favourites. There’s no slowing down with Shame though, ‘Friction’ and ‘Lampoon’ come next on the album with are both just as powerful as each other.
Shame End their debut on the incredibly powerful and climactic song ‘Angie’ which really ties the entire album together in a beautiful way. They clearly thought about the order of the songs which is so important when creating a collection of music.
Frontman Charlie Steen sounds like he’s straight out of the original punk scene and the rest of the band don’t shy away from it.
I attended the album launch show at Rough Trade East in Shoreditch, and it was nothing short of insanity. The band looking like they’d come from a sweatshop, and absolutely killing everything. Thrashing around like proper old school rockstars and really interactive with the audience. They are one of the best live acts out there by far.
Shame are ready to be one of the biggest bands in the fucking world.
