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Review |
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It was back in early 2006 when things started going
good for Enter Shikari, they had already played
a sold out headline show at the massive London Astoria
venue and then spent the following year touring
all around the country on a regular basis, they
then went on to release three stunning singles before
they released their much anticipated debut album
‘Take To The Skies’ on their own Ambush
Reality Record label after turning down every major
record deal to keep doing things themselves.
‘Take To The Skies’ took Enter Shikari
to another level, they went on to headline the
big Academy sized venues as well as playing at
every major festival across the UK with tours
overseas also popping up every now and again.
Well Enter Shikari are now back with their second
full length studio album ‘Common Dreads’
and once again it is going to take them to another
level, if you thought ‘Take To The Skies’
was good then you are going to be equally shocked
and impressed with how different and how much
better ‘Common Dreads’ is.
‘Common Dreads’ see’s Enter
Shikari try their hand at politics with a political
album about the state of the world these days
with the recession and even the greed of Tesco
taking over. Musically ‘Common Dreads’
is a lot more hardcore than what ‘Take To
The Skies’ was, there are a lot of big introductions
opening songs and some massive stand out synths
and disco beats and front man Rou Reynolds vocals
sound more raw and angry this time around.
The album opens with the title track ‘Common
Dread’s and just by listening to that one
track you get the feeling that Enter Shikari have
moved on far since the release of their debut
album in 2007, the song starts with a and a spoken
word narrative sounding like a bunch of TV interviews,
as soon as Rou Reynolds opens his mouth near the
end of the song shouting “Here tonight”
that’s when you realise that the 15 songs
ahead of you are going to be well worth the listen,
the song quickly blasts into ‘Solidarity’
which sounds epic, as mentioned above Rou’s
vocals come across quite raw and hardcore sounding,
but also quite melodic in places, the synths and
drums sound amazing with a lot of bass kicking
off, the end of the song is epic with a massive
band sing-a-long moment.
‘Common Dreads’ is such a strong
sounding album, it features 15 tracks with the
majority of them being of an high quality, songs
like ‘Step Up’ smash the fuck out
of anything Enter Shikari have done before, current
single ‘Juggernauts’ is one of the
only songs on the album that has that classic
Enter Shikari feel about it, ‘Zzzonked’
is going to be a track that people are going to
be talking about for a long time, it’s a
fierce sounding hardcore track that features a
brilliant drum role and Pendulum rocking synths
with Rou Reynolds sounding angrier than ever putting
his hardcore style vocals to the test, and I am
sure people are going to love shouting “Mate
what the fuck are you on about” at the bands
gigs alongside Rou, ‘Antwerpen’, is
bound to be a future single as it has so much
going for it.
The lyrics on the album are well written, take
wall for example ‘Wall’ it features
some interesting introduction lyrics of “I'm
gonna paste you up cover you in wallpaper, screw
shelves into you and call you a wall. That's all
you are to me trying to keep people inside, inside
your sordid little house. This is no right abode;
you can have skirting board shoes and plug sockets
on your knees”, the song its self is really
slow sounding which help the lyrics come across
crystal clear.
It’s quite rare for me to fall in love
with an album after just one listen but that was
all it took for me to get into ‘Common Dreads’
the album is so good it is on a total different
scale than the debut Enter Shikari album ‘Take
To The Skies’ and its proof that Enter Shikari
are not one trick pony’s and that they have
a very bright future ahead of them.
5/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Rou (Vocals)
Chris (Bass, Vocals)
Rory (Guitar, Vocals)
Rob (Drums) |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Common Dreads
2. Solidarity
3. Step Up
4. Juggernauts
5. Wall
6. Zzzonked
7. Havoc A
8. No Sleep Tonight
9. Gap In The Fence
10. Havoc B
11. Antwerpen
12. The Jester
13. Halcyon (intro)
14. Hectic
15. Fanfare for the Conscious Man |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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