(click the album art to purchase the album!)
Screamo/ post-harcore and electronic music are similar to Doritos and ice cream: both have their respective fan bases, and many consider each to be their "favorite" genre (or snack). However, when the two come together, it often does not produce a pleasurable result. However, for those who don't stop tweaking and changing things, be it your house's snack menu or your iPod's artist directory, there's still hope for innovation. And with that, across-the-pond rockers Enter Shikari have made their trek over the Atlantic Ocean, found a home at Hopeless Records, and are poised to breathe new life into the genre with their third full-length A Flash Flood of Colour.
When speaking of bands who have come to America from Great Britain, pop music sensations The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Oasis are inevitably going to come to mind. Enter Shikari are going to fall flat of those comparisons, but given their styles and hardcore-based leanings, Funeral for a Friend may be a better gauge for the band's career, and a much more realistic one. However, there are elements of the Enter Shikari "experience" that you won't get anywhere else, which may make them (and A Flash Flood of Color) the chipwich of the screamo-electronica scene.
A Flash Flood of Colour begins with the one-two punch of "System..." and "...Meltdown," with the former serving as ES frontman Rou Reynolds's opening monologue to the album, and it becomes abundantly clear that Reynolds has something to say about the current state of the world, and AFFoC is going to be chock full of it. "...Meltdown" begins with a bold, and likely unattainable claim that begins the song, as Reynolds yells "This is gonna change everything!" While it is clear Reynolds sees a need for change in the world around him, his calls for change would be rendered useless without a great band behind him, and without a great delivery of his vocals. Thankfully, the entire band backs up Reynolds's big-time talk, as the band seamlessly flow from straight-up guitar work to a few dubstep (ugh) samples before the listener even has a chance to prepare for that drastic a change. The band's ability to not only play these various styles, but also play them well and the ability to blend together may be what this often heavily-criticised genre needs, as its clear Enter Shikari put a great deal of thought into each track, rather than the current quick-fire album release trend going on now.
From the party-driven "Ssssnakepit" to the acoustic track (right after it) "Stalemate," Enter Shikari have no reservations about trying anything, so long as Rou Reynolds can get his message across. Reynolds's vocals are nearly impeccable throughout Flash Flood, as his sing/scream range may be the most diverse of any vocalist to come up this past half-decade. Reynolds can scream his lungs out on songs like the opening breakdown "Arguing with Thermometers," drop the screams altogether and shine over the piano ending of "Stalemate," and even show off a little bit of Grime influence (for those of you uneducated, Grime is a new form of underground rap in England, which has picked up steam in the last few years), with his British accent shining through to add a little more flavor than you're probably used to.
As the album ends with two bonus tracks, "Quelle Surprise" and "Destabilise" (two singles the band released before the release of Flash Flood), its a little tough to describe what you've just heard: was it metalcore meets dubstep? Was it another screamo/electronica mess? Did you do more dancing or moshing? With so many questions left unanswered, its clear that A Flash Flood of Colour will stay stuck in your head one way or another, whether its Rou Reynolds's voice, and all the progress he's made since the band's last full length Common Dreads, the band's fearlessness when blending heavy guitars with dance beats, or the flat-out ridiculousness that ensues (at one point, Reynold's says "Yabba dabba doo"-- not kidding-- on "Gandhi, Mate, Gandhi") once you press play on any track. The album is a conversation piece to say the least, and given the album's highly political lyrics, that's probably exactly what Enter Shikari want.
The Bottom Line: A Flash Flood of Colour is an album that will leave more unanswered questions than answered, but its worth a listen, as Enter Shikari are like the mature versions of Attack Attack! or I See Stars, and that's a really good thing.
Recommended if You Rock: Attack Attack!'s Someday Came Suddenly, Every Time I Die's The Big Dirty, and one of these bad boys.
A Flash Flood of Colour begins with the one-two punch of "System..." and "...Meltdown," with the former serving as ES frontman Rou Reynolds's opening monologue to the album, and it becomes abundantly clear that Reynolds has something to say about the current state of the world, and AFFoC is going to be chock full of it. "...Meltdown" begins with a bold, and likely unattainable claim that begins the song, as Reynolds yells "This is gonna change everything!" While it is clear Reynolds sees a need for change in the world around him, his calls for change would be rendered useless without a great band behind him, and without a great delivery of his vocals. Thankfully, the entire band backs up Reynolds's big-time talk, as the band seamlessly flow from straight-up guitar work to a few dubstep (ugh) samples before the listener even has a chance to prepare for that drastic a change. The band's ability to not only play these various styles, but also play them well and the ability to blend together may be what this often heavily-criticised genre needs, as its clear Enter Shikari put a great deal of thought into each track, rather than the current quick-fire album release trend going on now.
From the party-driven "Ssssnakepit" to the acoustic track (right after it) "Stalemate," Enter Shikari have no reservations about trying anything, so long as Rou Reynolds can get his message across. Reynolds's vocals are nearly impeccable throughout Flash Flood, as his sing/scream range may be the most diverse of any vocalist to come up this past half-decade. Reynolds can scream his lungs out on songs like the opening breakdown "Arguing with Thermometers," drop the screams altogether and shine over the piano ending of "Stalemate," and even show off a little bit of Grime influence (for those of you uneducated, Grime is a new form of underground rap in England, which has picked up steam in the last few years), with his British accent shining through to add a little more flavor than you're probably used to.
As the album ends with two bonus tracks, "Quelle Surprise" and "Destabilise" (two singles the band released before the release of Flash Flood), its a little tough to describe what you've just heard: was it metalcore meets dubstep? Was it another screamo/electronica mess? Did you do more dancing or moshing? With so many questions left unanswered, its clear that A Flash Flood of Colour will stay stuck in your head one way or another, whether its Rou Reynolds's voice, and all the progress he's made since the band's last full length Common Dreads, the band's fearlessness when blending heavy guitars with dance beats, or the flat-out ridiculousness that ensues (at one point, Reynold's says "Yabba dabba doo"-- not kidding-- on "Gandhi, Mate, Gandhi") once you press play on any track. The album is a conversation piece to say the least, and given the album's highly political lyrics, that's probably exactly what Enter Shikari want.
The Bottom Line: A Flash Flood of Colour is an album that will leave more unanswered questions than answered, but its worth a listen, as Enter Shikari are like the mature versions of Attack Attack! or I See Stars, and that's a really good thing.
Recommended if You Rock: Attack Attack!'s Someday Came Suddenly, Every Time I Die's The Big Dirty, and one of these bad boys.
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