Review Summary: Do "wubs" and "chugs" really make for an innovative, pioneering metal band?
A Flash Flood of Colour opens with the same tonal quality
Common Dreads did in 2009. In fact, exactly the same tone. But this time around, Enter Shikari has thrown away the engaging personality of their leading man, Rou Reynolds, in favor of repetitious “wubs” and short-handed, short-sighted, unrealized political rants. To cut to the quick, their third full-length release is about as inspired and charismatic as Keanu Reeves’ acting in
The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Enter Shikari--for better or worse--have prided themselves on being a truly experimental band to the hardcore/metalcore/punk/etc. scene. In reality, that just means they mixed in some synths and a few dubstep breakdowns á la carte to their usual drum-guitar-scream formula. Then again,
Common Dreads certainly struck some poignant chords when they spliced in jazz-funk on songs like “The Jester.” And especially if you’ve seen their live performance, you realize their affinity for showmanship and unbridled energy has the potential to live up to the hype. To a certain point, there wasn’t much denying the appeal of their aggressive presentation.
But breakdowns begin to drag on, and you can only go
crash, crash, crash,
chugga, chugga, chugga so many times before A Day to Remember sounds exactly like Bring Me the Horizon, Attack Attack! sounds exactly like The Devil Wears Prada, and the only thing holding Enter Shikari over the balance are those incessant “wubwubwubwub”s. But dubstep isn't what's to blame here. Plenty of people from Rusko to Skream to Burial have made a strong stake in the validity of the electronic genre. But Enter Shikari continually feels like they’re using it as a gimmick, such as on “Meltdown” with the short-stopped bass beats that only serve to act as a stand-in for the guitars on an average breakdown.
Considering how the intro “System” opens just like
Common Dreads did, there’s also “Search Party” which has the
exact same synthesizer melody that “Today Won’t Go Down in History” did on their previous release,
Take to the Skies. This leaves one of two possibilities: the band is completely oblivious and they’re rehashing old songwriting, or they’re purposefully sampling themselves because they believe they’re already a significant enough band to copy off themselves. Regardless of the answer, it just comes down to sounding like a rip-off of a rip-off.
The other quality that held Enter Shikari above the crowd of nameless metalcore bands was the humor. Whether it was the corny opener of “Johnny Sniper” or the swanky one on “The Jester,” Enter Shikari managed to take metal--which typically takes itself very seriously--and gave it a bit of laughs. On
A Flash Flood of Colour those jokes are stiff as hell. While “Gandhi Mate, Gandhi” certainly has an infectious aggression and anthemic quality surrounding it, the spoken interlude between the band mates sounds grossly contrived. And when Reynolds impersonates Louis Armstrong at the end of “Sssnakepit,” it sounds like someone said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we threw in that impersonation of Louis Armstrong at the end of ‘Sssnakepit’ for, like, an extended ending?” “Yeah, no one would get the inside joke. That would be so funny.”
Other than the unnecessary ending to the song, “Sssnakepit” might be the only worthwhile moment coming out of this album. It’s the one point where the band actually sounds like they’re having legitimate fun with each other. It just seems to mesh well. But the second half of the album meanders in a way that no metalcore album ever has before (and that’s even after considering the atrocious pacing of ADTR’s
What Separates Me From You). “Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here” bounces along to the same rhythm over and over again, “Pack of Thieves” gives us the worst falsetto metal has ever heard, and “Constellations” sounds like it would have fit better on the
Friday Night Lights soundtrack. It’s like watching a carbonated drink fizzle out into nothing.
At least for a while, Enter Shikari had a little bit going for them. Their raucous performance and willingness to bend what makes metal “Metal,” gave them an edge not many other bands had. But
A Flash Flood of Colour is like a revolution in the opposite direction. It’s like taking something fun and trying to
make it fun. And, no. Just because you splash dubstep on top of chugging breakdowns does not automatically make you an innovative metal band.
