Album Review: Shark School - 'Selachimorpha'
Galway’s fiercest new noisemakers, Shark School, show they are a force to be reckoned with on their debut album, Selachimorpha.
Hailing from Ireland’s west coast, the all-female garage band Shark School are taking the Irish music scene by storm. The trio are known for tackling important, often uncomfortable, topics through their music, blending garage punk, riotous indie rock and abrasive noise together to create their distinctive sound that is both chaotic and cathartic to listen to. Having steadily built a following since 2023, Shark School are finally set to release their debut album, Selachimorpha (the specific scientific name for modern sharks, for those curious). The album is loud, it’s confrontational, it’s raw and extremely honest, exploring an array of topics from gender politics to emotional collapse and inner turmoil. Shark School have come to make a statement, and with Selachimorpha, they do just that.
Shark School immediately kick the door off its hinges, opening the album with the intense, somewhat ominous track Chondrichtyes (aquatic vertebrates with skeletons composed entirely of cartilage, i.e. sharks). With distorted, menacing guitars and vocalist Nora Staunton’s terrifying wails that become drowned out by ferocious drums, you’re immediately hooked in by the track. It’s both intriguing and terrifying at the same time, and leaves you eager to see what comes next.
Chondrichtyes flows smoothly into the biting Shark Song. What starts as the precise pluck of the guitars quickly turns into a riot, crashing drums and jagged guitar riffs. It’s a punchy, infectious track, Staunton’s powerful vocals adding a layer of intensity, particularly as she bellows “I’m in pain / and I deserve it.” The slow bleeding out of the guitars leads straight into I’m A Sin, another gut-punch of a track. A raw intensity fuels it, as the trio bring to life struggling with one’s own identity “I know nothing / I’m a sin / never be as good as him”, and while it is an inherently heavy sounding track, the back and forth between the drums and fiery guitars continue to build the intense energy until it reaches that pivotal moment, the calm before the storm which is Staunton’s yelling “I’m A Sin” before fading out to thunderous like sound.
Selachimorpha is bubbling with tension that is just waiting to spill over, and Shark School’s Insomolence only adds further fuel to the fire. It’s 58 seconds of bone-rattling guitars, distorted noise and sizzling drums that get right under your skin, before transitioning into the roaring chaos that is Gnashing Teeth. Gnashing Teeth sees Shark School taking inspiration from Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name Of, and giving it their own unique twist. There’s a heaviness to it that sinks right into your bones and leaves you wanting more.
And more is what you get with the biting, powerhouse track Don’t Trust A Man, with its jagged guitars and pounding rhythms; it oozes with raw emotions: “Never trust a man / who can’t control his hands.” The band itself says that the track is “lamenting the desperation for women to comfortably just be; to just exist free of the burden and disappointment of living within a gendered social hierarchy.” It’s followed by striking track 5 AM, which has all of the noise and abrasiveness that Shark School do so well, but still carries an air of vulnerability, “the thought of him / leaves me clawing my neck.” Focusing heavily on assault and the trauma that comes with it, the Galway trio take an inherently heavy subject matter and, through tense, pulsing drums and bleeding guitars, create something cathartic and chaotic; all of their grief and rage pour out of this track. Shark School closes Selachimorpha with When I See Her, which feels like all of the tension that had been building throughout the album is finally released. It is every bit as infectious as the rest of the album, with the guttural vocals, relentless drums and pulsing guitars, and the spoken word-like addition at the end feels like the perfect way to close out the album, a subtle signing off from the band.
Shark School came to make a lasting impression, and with Selachimorpha, they do just that. It’s abrasive, it’s chaotic, it’s an exhilarating listen from start to finish, one that hooks you from the very beginning, and by the end leaves you wondering how long you should wait until you hit repeat.
Words by Angela English
