Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 19/03/07
Label: Ambush Reality

Over the past 12 months, much romantic prose has been spilled about MySpace, unsigned bands and the power of the internet. Primarily, this has concentrated on MP's favourites, Arctic Monkeys, but Lily Allen, Jamie T and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have all been branded as examples of web-led successes, as well as one-hit wonders like Koopa and Sandi Thom. With a host of corporations queuing up for some of that unsigned band action (the latest being "Pringles Unsung", with Echo & The Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch taking the Simon Cowell role) you'd think that the concept of musicians bypassing record labels was something new and exciting.

Never mind names like Aimee Mann, Fugazi, Ani DiFranco or Bis, even. Or that, in 1978, Vic Goddard's Subway Sect shifted 20,000 copies of their Rough Trade single "Ambition" in a week. Koopa sold about 4,000 downloads in the equivalent time frame. So, St Albans-based five-piece Enter Shikari are the latest poster boys for this wave of online autonomy. Resisting the corporate dollar, the hardcore and trance-influenced rockers started their own label, before reaching the dizzy heights of number 27 in the UK charts and selling out the Astoria. The Darkness, by the way - remember them? - achieved the same feat in 2002.

But while their reputation as a genuinely exciting live band is well deserved (witness the electrifying video for "Anything Can Happen In The Next Half An Hour") on record, they sound, well, ludicrous. From the opening cry of "Sh*t!" that launches "Take To The Skies" in the manner of Steve Coogan hangliding off a hill at the start of the Factory Records movie "24 Hour Party People", this is possibly the most DRAMATIC DEBUT ALBUM IN THE WORLD…EVER! Quite simply, whenever there's a nut to crack, Enter Shikari pile in with a collective hammer and smash it. BASH! POW! SNAP! OOF! By comparison, the likes of Muse are meek and sensitive.

Amidst the lasers and testosterone of their live show, the combination of rave synths and emo-style guitar attack is a winning blend, but, as is so often the case, the cold light of day is harsh. With the exception of the aforementioned single, plus "Return To Energiser" and the handclap-happy "Sorry, You're Not A Winner" too much of the remainder follows the same formulaic road: huge wash of keyboard, crunchy axe, vaguely apocalyptic shouting/anguished muffle, more keyboard washes as the kids raise their lasers to the skies, before exiting in another hail of guitar-fire.

It's better than Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, but it's still playing in the same ballpark. This is not a good thing. "Take To The Skies" will prove an undoubted success in 2007 and Enter Shikari will have a prosperous summer at the festivals, but for anyone who doesn't buy Kerrang! or is over the age of 15, their allure will remain mostly baffling - unsigned or otherwise.

    by Adam Webb