Review Summary: So alot of criticism for these guys, but they're not as bad as they're made out to be, honest.
Enter Shikari - Take To The Skies.
From the beginning, Enter Shikari seemed pretty promising, they'd chosen to do it all by themselves by deciding to start up their very own record label, named Ambush Reality. The demo's all seemed pretty raw but they had potential. The idea's were good and they knew what they were doing when it came to performing their songs. British crowds of teenagers and young adults absolutely loved these guys when it was still all about the demo's. Enter Shikari became only the second unsigned band to ever sell out the London Astoria.
When the band started to become more mainstream, alot of listeners were either amazed by their integrity or appalled by all the hype and felt that one of their favourite new bands had sold themselves out way too soon.
Although the matter of Enter Shikari selling out is something that can be debated; The band chose to withdraw their first single 'Sorry You're Not A Winner' from the charts. Such an act could be argued that they were so determind not to sell out that they actually sold themselves out to the publicity for doing this.
Selling out issues aside, the bands idea of having their own record label was in fact a good one. The fact that Enter Shikari's style is so different to most other Post-Hardcore around this time, major labels might have thought it to be too risky to let this band do what they want. Enter Shikari gave themselves the freedom to experiment with the instruments and styles that they wanted without the pressure of having to sell records.
The album, Take To The Skies left some fans dissapointed at the fact that a lot of the songs on the album were just re-recorded, touched up versions of the demo's. Only around 3 of the songs on the album, plus the interludes were new songs. However, for the ones that are new, they are pretty good. Adieu happens to be the bands idea of a ballad. One of their only songs that doesn't have Rou's harsh vocals but instead has clean singing all the way through. That is probably the highlight of this song. Rou has moved away from the cat-screech screams that were present on the demo's but even so, the screaming, at the best of times, is just about bearable.
The guitars sometimes repetitive, but the synths are just right for this record. The bands most popular song, 'Sorry, You're Not A Winner' happens to have been done to perfection. The vibrant synths in the background of the song really stands out and makes it seem like the best song on the album. Listening to the demo of this track and then the album version, makes you realise just how far they've come in such a short time.
Perhaps the worst song on the album happens to be Johnny Sniper. The band's style really doesn't work for this track and as much as I'm all for experimenting, the band just seemed to take this song in the wrong direction. Another reason for this being arguably the worst song on the album is that mixing screamo into this was a bad idea.
Enter Shikari may have alot of bad points, but they also have alot of good ones too. I feel the amount of criticism they've recieved over the last few years is slightly unfair, the band have chosen to do something rarely done before and it's going to take them a while to find their feet with this style and listeners are going to have to get used to something so different. Another thing I would like to point out is that this is only their first album, so give these guys a little credit, the credit they deserve.
