Trance metal loons Enter Shikari have returned with a fusion masterpiece – love them or hate them the band have moved on leaps and bounds, integrating their myriad influences into a more cohesive sound. 

Enter Shikari ‘Common Dreads’

Common Dreads
Synth strings. An ominous bassline. A man’s voice reads a subversive poem before a collage of international voxpops call ‘we must unite’ (the poem is apparently read by one of the band members’ dads).

Click here to read Enter Shikari’s 2009 biography.

Solidarity
“Here tonight, I clock a thousand heads, here to unit, through common dreads” calls Rou. Cue a  massive trancey hook, some acid noise, drums and guitars join the mix and again, Rou calls the opening refrain. The track quickly gets started and heads into the verse – melodic and energetic. A quick stripped down bridge with some more synthy digi-madness and beat down guitars. Finally the chorus comes in and Rou’s vocals approaches actual singing, with Rory and Chris backing. With blatant disregard for structure the song launches into a reference to previous album with the line ‘soon we will be here, standing like statues’ and build a wall of choral choir-like voices. Utterly mad.

Step Up
Small synths, fast thrash-lite drums, distorted filtered guitars and a the band dive head-first into vocal play. Then a bridge and into a break down with weird synths, then back into a call and response chorus. It really is hard to keep up with Enter Shikari on this new album, they’re clearly over flowing with ideas and the energy to do them. In the tech-house nu skool breaks bass Rou starts to sound like The Streets’ Mike Skinner as he spits out lyrics. The chorus returns with Chris’ clean vocals. Already you notice that the whole Enter Shikari sound is more cohesive – the songs sound less like a hardcore/trance bootleg made in GarageBand and more like a band who wrote rock record on synths and guitars. The tracks fades away in a whirr of drilling drums and melchoir tones.

Juggernaughts
Straight in with uber-fast synths and drums a classic sounding ES chorus starts of this great tune. More Streets-y rhymes over electronic beats. Rory – we imagine – joins the mix with his distinctive voice – which is little heard in previous outings. The vocal harmonies bring a certain humanity to the digital chaos. Once stripped to nothing synthy swooshes the thrashy drum-led chorus ploughs in again. The band have still managed to inject this well-produced album with their signature erratic-ness and Tigger-like maniacal energy. Great that despite the production, Rou’s voice is still packed with character and doesn’t sound laboured by a million vocal takes.

Wall
Another slow opener. But you know it’s going to go nuts. And sure enough after the tapping drums and singing (about skirting board trousers and plugs on your knees?) the track builds into a crescendo of synths, drums and vocals – the guitar line almost reminiscent of Lostprophets. The drums become more and more like Pendulum as the rhythms grow into drum’n’bass rhythms. The track finishes with a gang-style wooah-ooooooah and horns. Remix me thinks…

Zzonked
More classic Enter Shikari, heavy hectic breakdowns and extra synthing and smashing cymbals. When eccentric meets aggressive. When the tune gets going it’s more Hadouken-esque synths and Pendulum 00s drum’n’bass. And Mike Skinner is back. Jesus he sounds like him. What will surely become a fan favourite line, Rou shouts: ‘Mate, what the fuck are you on about!?” Which seems so relevant to a band who have confused and confounded so many people. Dark-step drum’n’bass basslines and twisted acid loops spin round under screaming, like darker heavier Prodigy.

Havoc A
The tempo comes down but the old school hardcore (rave) bassline still bubbles away. The subversive suggestion of the music is obvious: ‘we don’t take orders from snakes no more’. This track goes with a less is more aesthetic of almost entirely electronic elements. Just a quickie this one.

No Sleep Tonight
Big verse starts this one, and the rhythms are just champing at the bit to gallop away. When it does the chorus is massive and even has a little Klaxons-esque backing vocal. Again, there are the tiniest hints at Lostprophets here – possible the drumming and rhythms. Rou actually proves that he really can sing, a great soaring roar that doesn’t lack aggression as he reaches more difficult notes. Gratuitous key change. The end. Clearly a single this one. 

Gap In The Fence
Ooh, a ballad. The ballad-y ones on the first album, were, in the view of many fans, weaknesses. But this one skips along with nice rim shots and picked acoustic guitar. Again, the more mature and dense vocal arrangements makes this a glorious anti-beach anti-anthem (basically, not Jack fucking Johnson). An eerie but beautiful track that oozes credibility, authenticity and honesty. Oh, it’s not a ballad. Suddenly the ’I’ve gotta get out of here’ refrain builds to a euphoric Ibiza circa 2001 style dance floor fave. Less anti-beach and more… beachin’. And there’s the heaviness. Seriously, it’s exhausting trying to keep up with this band. Like fucking a hot Olympic athlete.

Havoc B
Another wonky skit of drums and bass and meandering guitar. Rou shouts ’now let’s cause some fuckin’ havoc’. Yes, it’s a skit, but a skit with lyrics. Actually one of the most aggressive tracks on the album – almost doom/grindy in it’s rolling dirge.

Antwerpen
A wicked riff, drums and scream opens this track wide open from the off. But then you probably know that because it was the free download. Again the stoppy-starty structures lead into a Mike Oldfield-esque synth run, then into guitars, then jungle breaks and back again. With added punky na-na-nah. Another belter.

The Jester
Jazz. And Rou sounding like Mike Skinner. Again. This happens for 40 seconds before the track kicks in proper. Apparently this one is already a live favourite, and it’s not hard to believe with the pounding rhythm drums and abso-fucking-lutely huge twisted acid synth-line. The drum rolls and rolls and the track builds and builds and smashes into what sounds like Prodigy covering Queens Of The Stone Age. And back to jazz. No one has the right to critique this music. Because no one knows what the fuck it is. Utterly barking.

Halcyon (intro)
Some twinkling synths and some stoppy-starty breakdowns…

Hectic
…but all buying time until an almighty (and filthy) synth-line. Once set up, Rou’s lyrics tell of ‘scrumpy’ and ‘mega drives’ and ‘white lightning’ “And it seems like nothing will ever change”.
The bridge is an awesomely uses what sounds like end of level boss music from some 8-bit console. But with falsetto vocals.

Fanfare For The Conscious Man
This sounds initially like it could be Primal Scream. Long horn notes. Rou hops on his anti-establishment, anti-war and anti-corporate soapbox and invites the Queen to twat Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with her crown. While people sneer at people who take a stand as being earnest and pretentious and trying too hard to be relevant, but when you listen to the lyrics you can’t help a) feel the band really mean it, and b) agree. What a great finish to an album no one thought this band were capable of.

If we were reviewing the album, not simply describing it, we might say something like ‘this is album that will not only define this band’s career, but will doubtless serve as a wake up call to both experimental hipsters and genre puritans as to what rock/dance fusion music should not only sound like, but feel like.