Enter Shikari : A Flash Flood of Colour - Album Review

Enter Shikari
A Flash Flood of Colour
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

British post-hardcore/electronicore quartet Enter Shikari's third album A Flash Flood of Colour is a strange beast. Taking elements from post-hardcore, screamo, post-punk, dubstep, and Drum N' Bass, they have fashioned a Frankenstein-style hybrid that surprisingly works a majority of the time, yet falters under heavy-handed political and socio-economic sloganeering that threatens to crash and burn the album. Enter Shikari have always incorporated electronic elements into their releases, but this is the first where they take more of the spotlight. The album works best when then tone the rhetoric down, and allow the dubstep and DnB elements to work within the track and not just tacked on because it's a "dubstep" album. It's been an interesting year, seeing many bands/artists/DJs jump on the dubstep bandwagon. Sometimes it works well, but in most cases it smacks of a band trying to become relevant again, or an up and coming band trying to get noticed more quickly. I think Enter Shikari fall somewhat in a middle ground. Not every track tries to incorporate these elements, and they tend to integrate them better than most. My main issue with the record is that the songs are all over the place, never coalescing into a signature "sound" for the band, and you are left with something rather schizophrenic.

Honestly, the tracks that work best are the least "electronic" and the least overtly political. "Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here," works an incredible melody and very subdued vocal from Roughton "Rou" Reynolds, before amping up the guitars and burbling electronics at the end. It's a catchy earworm of a song, that highlights their strengths.



Similarly, "Pack of Thieves" glides over arpeggiated synths, a driving beat, and half shouted vocals from Reynolds. The more pop elements of the track speak louder and More forcefully than when the band turns all the amps up to 10. Even the mid-song dubstep breakdown feels natural, and not just something thrown in as an afterthought.



"Search Party" is the best song Linkin Park has never written. Reigning his worst tendencies to over-emote, Reynolds' vocals are tightly coiled, allowing room for the song to breathe, while still letting go near the end under grinding guitars.



There are moments where they push the envelope while still being loud and in-your-face. "Sssnakepit" combines DnB breaks and dubstep bass over furiously raging guitars. the song whipping from electronics, pop punk, to rough hardcore. Even pausing at the end for a silly comment on how Reynolds' voice gets so low, it sounds like Louis Armstrong. Moments like this show that, despite some of the glumness of the album, they at least have a sense of humor.



Sometimes the songs never seem to find what they want to be. "Arguing With Thermometers" can't decide if it is hardcore techno vs. DnB, or scream-core, and then somewhat oddly becomes a Foals' like guitar rave-up at the chorus. It becomes truly dizzying.



Too often, the songwriting overpowers what they are trying to do, and instead of getting their point across subtly you are bludgeoned repeatedly with too many simplistic slogans and ideas. Opening duo "System..." and "...Meltdown," while sonically interesting, lose their impact by rather tepid Political Science 101 metaphors. Most egregious is the eye-rolling smug socialism of "Ghandi Mate, Ghandi," which, in addition to the lyrics, can't seem to figure out if it is a hardcore song or a dubstep track. Where this tension works in some of their songs, here it clashes too much, becoming more irritating as the song progresses.



This constant genre hopping throughout the record can be exhausting at times, and makes for a whiplash type experience until the surprisingly tender electronic closer "Constellations." While I don't like to say how a band should sound, they should do whatever makes them happy, I do think pointing out the elements and songs that work best of them is fine. In this case, Enter Shikari's voice comes through much clearer when they take things down a notch. Reynolds has a surprisingly supple voice that serves the band well in whatever context they choose, and there are several tracks that showcase this talent well. I only wish A Flash Flood of Colour had more of a signature sound and vision, and didn't try to so hard to be edgy. Based on many of these tracks, I can't say the album is a failure at all. Indeed, I find myself going back to many tracks over and over again, and am hoping that with future releases the band will see where their strengths lie, and push towards that direction.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.