Six-piece band from Leeds whose mission is the “execution of psychedelic rock” through a brutal fusion of garage punk, post-punk and doom metal. The group, whose only known member is vocalist Callum Howe, emerged from the industrial city of West Yorkshire as a response to what they perceive as the castration of contemporary rock music.

The Shits debuted in 2020 with the album “Punishment,” released at a time when their “grueling, discordant axe of ire” resonated particularly powerfully. After signing with prestigious label Rocket Recordings, the band found themselves alongside acts like Gnod and Sex Swing, though their approach to heaviness is far more primal and raw.

Stylistically, The Shits draw inspiration from a lineage connecting The Stooges’ “Fun House” with Amphetamine Reptile records, Brainbombs and Drunk In Hell. Their music is “Stygian riffology” – endless, repetitive riffs that literally “bludgeon the listener into unconsciousness.” Characteristic of the band is their obsessive repetition of the same motifs for minutes, creating a hypnotic yet exhausting effect. As one reviewer describes: “I tried to count how many times The Shits pound the fuck out of the same riff but lost track after thirty-something.”

Their second album “You’re A Mess” (2023) is a “staggering assault of invective” consisting of eight “feral exorcisms.” The material opens with the tense “In My Hotel Room” – a slow UK post-punk construction leading to a claustrophobic climax. Tracks like “Waiting,” “Bludgeoned To Death” and “Alone II” represent the band’s nihilistic, misanthropic undertones, realized through “metallic, acid-stripped groove’s” and growling vocals.

Media describe The Shits as “terrible, terrible bastards” creating music with the properties of “dark amber, ammonia stinking, three-day rave piss” (The Quietus). According to Louderthanwar, their work constitutes “a real and present threat to life and limb,” where “relentless negativity is alchemically transformed into profane primal salvation.”

As John Doran from The Quietus puts it: “Steady your nerve, delve into their metallic, acid stripped, pig-fuck grooves and you will find a chaotic world of inverted psychedelia and jet black – fucking appalling – enlightenment waiting for you.”