Harbour Sharks - A History of Violence

Harbour Sharks A History of Violence cover
Harbour Sharks
A History of Violence
2017
4.5
Harbour Sharks is a punkcore trio from Kingston that debuted a couple of years ago with a single and are bringing out their proper full-length release out now, after honing their skill on live stages all around the UK. There’s lots of groove/core elements, as well as some more metallic riffs here and there, while the vocals tend to be power/pop meets punk.
 
Opener “False Flags” is one of the more aggressive and rhythmical pieces here.
 
“The Killer Inside Me” tries to keep up, but gets a more melodic chorus that waters it down.
 
“It’s Not Working Out” wimps it out, despite a somewhat heavy but iffy riff.
 
“Swing Away Merrill” doesn’t manage to pick up the slack and is not just wimpy; it’s pretty bad, plain and simple.
 
The title track is heavier and more aggressive, but gets softer in the middle, before it goes berserk all over again.
 
“Don’t Say Revenge” is bad “melowcore” with the occasional screamo moment… not really too original.
 
“Vulva”, as well as uvula are words that I like, but this song is hairy, starting off all aggressive and losing the aggression midway, plus it ends abruptly, which is too prog for me.
 
“Shatter” is a letter away from a constipated me and seriously just repeats the same mo, as almost every other song before it, but with an even more melodic verse that’s just too “sweet” to really like, sounding more like n’sync than anything else and completely out of place.
 
“Burn Down London” is sufficiently yobbish, but probably the best song from this rotten bunch.
 
For some reason the band goes all “dark” and “gothic” on their last song, “Abandon All Hope”, I guess laying the groundwork for a genre-switch, in case this doesn’t work out too well.
 
Pedestrian and unimpressive, I’d say and completely out of place next to all the silliness going on in the rest of the album… which is too compressed and lifeless, despite being punk-ish, ie “loud”.