The do-it-yourself hardcore act Enter Shikari has released Take To The Skies on their own label, Ambush Reality. Normally this is nothing new to hear — that a band has released a CD under their own label — but this is the band’s debut CD. The band actually turned down offers from heavy hitting labels in favor of releasing the CD on their own.

British act Enter Shikari is not your ordinary hardcore band. They are on their own level when it comes to assigning them a genre. It is hardcore, but slammed up, with synthesizer making it almost a genre of music that has not been defined yet. It’s futuristic hardcore complete with group vocals, heavy screaming, and keyboard solos. 

I have not heard anything quite like it yet, and I must say I am impressed. It’s like listening to a horrific collision of techno and hardcore - and sounds much better than you think.

The members met in school and formed a band. They actually stepped it up a bit and acted like a band by touring and getting their name out there on their own. While working hard, they discovered their sound and mixed up elements of hardcore, screamo, and trance to create a sound more or less what Prodigy may have sounded like if they had come out 10 years later.

Staring off the CD is an untitled introduction gently preparing you for “Enter Shikari,” a post-hardcore sounding track with equal amounts of harmonious vocals as well as throat scraping screaming and group vocals. If that is not enough for you, there are trance-like keyboard riffs in the background. This is a crazy song and I can see a lot of people feeling overwhelmed while listening to it and declaring it sucks.

“Mothership,” the band’s first single, continues to blend musical styles such as hardcore, emo, and trance. The song is brutal and danceable at the same time. “Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour…” follows with a more emo-meets-techno feel at the beginning, but soon explodes into a track that one way or another will move your body. 

In between some of the songs were little interludes I felt were inserted to help your brain not explode. With everything going on, it was nice to have a couple of soft, quiet moments to re-gather my thoughts.