Album Review: THE SHITS - “Diet Of Worms”
Written by: Rashid AlKamraikhi | Thursday 2nd April 2026
A Swirling Cacophony
In the lead up to reviewing this album, I got to talk with THE SHITS guitarist, Henry, wherein I tried to drop in as many shit puns as possible. While he took it all in good humour, he did enforce that their name was in reference to the act of being an annoying shit, as opposed to an actual piece of excrement, so it’s out of respect to that that I have titled this review ‘A Swirling Cacophany’ instead of ‘A Swirling Caca-phony’, regardless of how well the stright down the flusher imagery would have played into it.
In fact this album is a complete antithesis to either interpretation of their name, because it is in fact neither shit, nor annoying. Instead, it is a solid slab of psyched out blusey, alternative punk rock, reminiscent, at least to my ears, of THE JESUS LIZARD. Deep and sludgy bass lines with thumping drums form the bedrock of THE SHITS sound, with chaotically entwined triple guitars dancing all around them, and snarled, aggravated vocals providing harshness and a sense of danger that breaks up the almost hypnotic flow of the music that they puncture through.
I asked Henry what he thought defined their new shit, from the old shit, so that it wasn’t just the same shit, different album, and he said that for him, while the core elements of their sound were still very much present, he had leaned a lot more into the psych side of it, incorporating the use of wah pedals to enhance the atmospheric and disturbing qualities of it. On the record, this becomes immediately prominent on the second track of the album, ‘Tarrare’, an ode to a 18th century French showman with unusual eating habits, which I assume would have included more than a few worms. Check out the Wikipedia article about him, it’s pretty wild.
Until the album’s release in the coming week, they have made two tracks available, ‘Joyless Satisfaction’ and ‘Thank You For Being A Friend’, with the latter giving more of a paranoid schizophrenic Yorkshire Ripper vibe, than the mild mannered Betty White sitcom feels that the song’s title might fool you into. Either way, both tracks are very indicative of the overall sound and feelings experienced when sitting down to dine on a full diet of worms.
Diet of Worms will be available via ROCKET RECORDINGS on the 10th of April. Order up!
