Enter Shikari

With the state of musical genres and music in general today, everybody always needs to pay close attention. Sounds and styles are all blending together without us even realizing it: it’s almost impossible to follow. Fortunately, there are some bands that try to make these blend as noticeable as possible. Take for example, Enter Shikari, who successfully blend techno with post hardcore, ultimately creating one epic sound. In most instances, Europe tends to take music to the extreme (more so than other places), which makes sense considering this band hails from Hertfordshire. Now, onto the band’s debut album, Take To The Skies.

I personally love it when artists blend tracks together and in this case, Just about every track on the entire album blends extremely well together. The melanges are usually more throughout the electronic side of things, however, there is still plenty of Rock to the tunes. The tracks also have a wide variety of style, ranging from slow, more elegant sounding pieces, right over to the extreme of low growls with breakdowns in behind. It is quite astonishing to hear a breakdown simultaneously with a techno beat.

I’m not going to lie, some of the vocals all out suck. But, some of the vocals are utterly mesmerizing. I believe every member of the band offers their vocals to the majority of the tracks. I’m not sure which guy does the vocals I’m not fond of, but it sounds like he’s constipated. Either that, or he’s just clenching his teeth and jaw while he’s “screaming”, which really sounds restricted.

All in all, the album wasn’t a waste… nor was it a masterpiece. The concept is a great idea, but some of the vocals do need to be tweaked. Possibilities do lay ahead for this mash-up of a sound, and kudos to the band for having the Stones to try!  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. Stand Your Ground; This Is Ancient Land
02. Enter Shikari
03. Mothership
04. Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour…
05. Interlude 1
06. Labyrinth
07. No Sssweat
08. Today Won’t Go Down In History
09. Interlude 2
10. Return to Energiser
11. Interlude 3
12. Sorry, You’re Not a Winner
13. Interlude 4
14. Jonny Sniper
15. Adieu
16. OK, Time For Plan B
17. Closing

Run Time: 53:51