Shaaaaark

Ha Ha They're All Gonna Die!!! [Demo EP] (2016)

TomTrauma

When The Lippies split up earlier this year, bass player Lawrence Kole didn’t spend a whole lot of time sitting around feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he responded by diving head first into about a half dozen new projects. Shaaaaark is the first of those bands to release music. Soundwise, they couldn’t be much further from his previous band. While The Lippies played catchy, feminist pop punk, Shaaaaark specializes in harsh, caustic hardcore. Imagine Barney Greenway from Napalm Death singing for Minor Threat. Or something like that.

Kole plays guitar in this Grand Rapids, MI based super obscure supergroup. Matt Stacks from Bong Mountain, another up and coming pop punk band, is on drums. The other two guys come from heavier backgrounds, including one time local hardcore favorite Damages. Ha Ha They’re All Gonna Die!!! is a six song, six minute EP that gives you very little chance to catch your breath. The riffs are fast and pummeling. The vocals are delivered in a near death metal bark. There’s even elements of black metal. Only the 5th track, “Aim Low”, breaks the one minute mark. It’s also the only song that has time to have a proper, chugging hardcore breakdown.

There’s nothing here that would pass for melody, but that’s the point. Ha Ha They’re All Gonna Die!!! is stark and brutal and is clearly exorcising the demons of the individual band members. It’s a hostile musical punch in the crotch and it sounds like they had a ton of fun making it. Shaaaaark has almost zero commercial potential, but would almost certainly be enjoyed by fans of ugly, outsider hardcore. This angry noise is a promising start for a young band made up of older guys. Available as a name your price digital download or on very limited edition cassette.