'No Gods' may be a debut album, but it doesn't feel like the start of a new band. Sharks are the band championed by the likes of Frank Carter, who took them on tour with Gallows in 2009 in the belief they were the embodiment of "proper punk". 'Punk' of course is more than cut throat vocals and antagonistic guitars, it's a state of mind. There's an infinite amount of bands today that look the part of angsty anarchist youths, but there's much fewer bands like Sharks that convince you they're in this because they've actually got something interesting to say. Instead of saying "fuck off" for the sake of saying fuck off, they make music with a heartbeat that kicks with a lasting, earnest bruise.
'No Gods' is on the whole a sleeker Sharks. That needs to be said outright. The visceral edge that left tyre tracks across the conscious mind of the punk underground, and even the hardcore crowd is now slightly foamier in places, however that's no slight on the band to point out. There's still the same punching heartbeat as before, it's just bigger and more inviting.
Previous compilation album 'The Joys Of Living 2008-2010', which banded together EP's 'Show of Hands' and 'Shallow Waters', now feels like Chapter 1 of a story, and 'No Gods' is a self-sufficient second chapter in a tale worth hearing.
Singer James Mattock has a slick gravel-roll to his vocals. Amongst the intuitive riffs and grounded foundation, it's the way his vocals coat the lyrics that gives Sharks that extra gravity and soul, elevating them stories above being just another band of ruff uns with guitars. 'There is a hole in my life I lost to luck' he sings on 'Luck', and you believe it, too.
'Able Moving Hearts' has a chorus thicker than pebble-dashed blood, while 'Arcane Effigies' could fit bang in the middle of their 'Shallow Waters' EP with it's skinhead-rousing howls.
'Matthew's Baby' is a speaker stack nosedive into a mid-70's underground bar, while closer 'No Gods' is a crowd-doubling hit that will surely see them swallowed up by festival crowds just a few months down the line.
There's more certainty than ever in this debut that you'll see them in larger ponds in the near future, but if that's the case at least they'll be heading there with all the feral power we loved in the first place. Check those dates out above too, they're hitting the road this weekend.
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