originally written by Craig Hayes
If you’re just sinking your teeth into this three part feature, first swim the waters of Part 1 and Part 2.
MONSTER IN THE CREEK
There’s been a lot of music featuring sharks since the release of Jaws, and you can obviously thank a couple of generations of musicians that’ve seen the film and/or soaked in all the other sharky cultural references since its release for that.
Of course, slapping a mammoth set of jaws on the cover of an album or singing about a deadly fin in the water is no guarantee of any interesting tunes. But given the aggression favored in the heavier musical spheres, you could safely say that sharks are more commonly used as a representational devices there than anywhere else.
It’s worth pointing out that affection is apparently mutual, because sharks are quite the headbangers themselves. In 2011, Australian shark dive operator Matt Waller began experimenting with acoustic lures to bring sharks close to his boat, and he found that AC/DC tunes attracted great whites without the need of any bait. Sharks are attracted to low frequencies, which explains their love of the heavier end of the rock ‘n’ roll, spectrum, and it
positively begs for someone to run Sunn O))) trials immediately; just to see what giants can be drawn up from the deep.
Back in the human end of the entertainment spectrum you’ll find sharks being referenced directly, metaphorically, and, as mentioned, used as a symbolic motif. There’s a lot of hard rock and death, thrash, classic, and gore-inclined heavy metal that features great big gnarly sharks on their covers – if little mention of them elsewhere. But, if you’re after something on the sophisticated side, San Francisco prog/post-metal band Giant Squid has issued a few ocean focused releases, and the band’s most obvious shark references can be found on their 2005 EP, Monster in the Creek.
Monster in the Creek featured a photo of Matawan Creek on its cover, and a couple of songs dealing directly with the Jersey Shore shark attacks. However, Seattle trio Akimbo are the only band to record an album entirely dedicated to those events – and take it from me, it’s an absolute, stone-cold, blood in the water classic.
•••••
JERSEY SHORES (2008)
Akimbo was formed in the late ‘90s by bassist and vocalist Jon Weisnewski and drummer and Nat Damm. They drew from punk, hardcore, noise-rock, and various strains of metal, and the band recorded for a number of different labels, including Seventh Rule Recordings and Alternative Tentacles.
Akimbo’s masterpiece is 2008’s Jersey Shores. Released by Neurot Recordings, after the band was handpicked by Neurosis members to join the label, for aficionados of thundering hybrid sounds, and shark-filled tales, Jersey Shores is about as good at it gets. In fact, as yet, there’s no one else who’s come remotely close to bettering the album – and you should definitely think of tracking down the gatefold vinyl version of the release.
Recorded over a three-month period in Louisville, Kentucky, with Chris Owens at the helm (Coliseum, Breather Resist), Jersey Shores was tracked at the same time as Akimbo’s 2007 album Navigating the Bronze, but the two releases are radically different in tone and temper. Jersey Shores is filled with abundant musical and storytelling prowess, with guitarist Aaron Walters mixing off-kilter doom and sludge metal riffs with uber-progressive hardcore and progged-out punk and post-rock.
Jersey Shores is loaded with fretboard fireworks and twisting, turning, and ominous songs, and the entire narrative of the album is dedicated to covering the twelve days of terror for those involved in the Jersey Shore attacks. Akimbo were adept at making a lot of unruly noise over their career and Jersey Shores differs from the band’s previous work not just because it’s a concept album, but also because it’s more musically mature with six expertly arranged and paced songs.
Tracks like “Matawan” and “Bruder Vansant”, bring mammoth waves of crashing crescendos, with fathomless eddies of noise churning within, and the 11-minute “Lester Stillwell” is the prime example of why Jersey Shores encapsulates the story so well. “Lester Stillwell” begins with eerie atmospherics, before Weisnewski begins howling over the top. Then, when the warnings of an eight foot monster in the creek are ignored, everything explodes in a massive and murderous bass-heavy frenzy – making for an evocative assault on the senses.
The tale continues on “Rouge” and “Great White Bull”, where grooves, breakdowns, and build-ups feature intense bursts of heavy riffs which sink beneath the waves only to rise up for another charge. Jersey Shores drifts out on the rising tides of the album’s title track, for a gentler end to a ferocious tale, but the sound of waves washing ashore on “Jersey Shore” set the scene of aftermath perfectly; with a deep unease being conjured.
Jersey Shores captures all the fear and confusion of the time, and the album brings an exquisite sense of menace overall. Sudden bursts of attack are all delivered with apt ferocity throughout, but the key to the album’s success is that Akimbo also slows things down with droning distortion and icy plucked notes; just to let the blood run cold, and allow the shock to settle in.
Akimbo summon the consistent presence of terror lurking in the depths on Jersey Shores, mining that primal fear about what lies waiting beneath the darkened waves. In that sense, Jersey Shores underscores that sharks are creatures of both immense physical and symbolic power, driven by forces that are outside our understanding. However, as Akimbo also spells out in the liner notes on Jersey Shores: “Violence. Death. Fear. Reality. It happened. It always happens. It will always happen. On the planet. And in the oceans. Our home. There are many tenants here.”
That’s the crucial point, because we are all tenants on this earth – and we’re temporary ones at best. As humans, we’re the ones choosing how we represent our neighbors on the land and beneath the sea, and we’re the ones defining sharks’ characteristics, value, and what level of respect they should be granted.
•••••
FIN(I)
We can revel in all the powerful imagery associated with sharks how we see fit, and it doesn’t matter if it’s fact, fiction, or somewhere in between. There are films, books, and music about sharks that we’re collectively enjoying because, at the end of the day, sharks are just cool as fuck.
Wherever they appear, sharks bring fear and danger. But they’re also bringing all those fierce tunes and images along for the ride as well. From “Fast as a Shark” to Jersey Shores, sharks and metal go hand-in-fin because they both obviously get the blood pumping and, of course, they’re both aggressive, savage, and loved by fans all over the world. Satan might make for a more archetypal villain to sing about, but if you’re after real world terror then sharks are going to tweak the nerves and bring the horror like no other creature on this earth.
Metal’s the best soundtrack for that. All those heavy ass riffs and thundering percussion capture the circling menace and rapid and brutal attacks perfectly. However, although we’re immersing ourselves in rich and rewarding shark myths, we shouldn’t forget to come up for air on occasion. The reality is, sharks are nowhere near as resilient or enduring as the myths that surround them. If sharks are stigmatized as ruthless killing machines, then we’re not going to care about their fate, and to lose an apex predator like sharks from the world’s oceans will have disastrous consequences.
In 2013, requiem, hammerhead, basking, mackerel, whale, great white, porbeagle, and oceanic whitetip sharks were all listed as being in grave danger of extinction. Every one of those sharks swimming towards oblivion is an exquisite example of nature’s diversity and adaptive elegance. Ultimately, the most serious peril associated with sharks that humanity faces today is found in the very real danger of losing them forever.
