Hardcore heroes
Enter Shikari are known for their thrashing post-punk sound — so fans may be surprised by their melodic new direction, they tell David Smyth
ICAN still remember the first time I heard Enter Shikari. If you’re unfamiliar with the St Albans band, put your feet up next time you have a spare four minutes and give an early song such as their 2006 single Sorry You’re Not a Winner a spin. Rave drums, computer bleeps, death-metal growls, grinding guitars and lurching gear changes: it’s the musical equivalent of being inside Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz twister while boats, chickens and an old lady on a bicycle flash past and you get bashed on the head by a window. Not for nothing was another early single titled Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour. It’s not easily forgotten.
This parent-scaring cacophony wasn’t for everyone, of course, but those who follow the band in large numbers are deeply committed. “I wake up, get off the tour bus and there are people already there, camped out. They sit there all day,” says drummer Rob Rolfe, 31.
In 2006, after just two singles, Enter Shikari became the second band (after The Darkness) to sell out the 2,000capacity Astoria without being signed to a record deal. This November they’ll embark on their second UK arena tour in less than two years. Their teetering Jenga tower of styles has successfully tapped into the genre-less way in which so many listen to music today, when all types and decades are equally available in a click and tribalism is no more.
From beneath his messy thatch of hair, multi-instrumentalist frontman Rou (rhymes with “cow”) Reynolds, 31, quietly explains to me why his quartet’s fans are so dedicated. “We’re not a technical metal band or anything. There are bands that are a lot more complex than us. But in terms of influences and structures there is a lot going on and I think that requires quite a lot of effort from the listener,” he says. “We respect our audience and have a closer connection with them because we know they haven’t just heard a song a few times, whistled it down the street and then gone on to whistling the next big band. They’ve put the time in.”
However, things are changing as the band release their fifth album, The Spark, today. Perhaps their tour in May, at which they played their debut album, Take to the Skies, in full to mark its 10th anniversary, was a line drawn under past work. Still, Reynolds is the last person I expect to hear saying: “This time simplicity was really important.” It’s like Stephen Hawking telling you he just wants to focus on sudoku for the time being.
New song The Revolt of the Atoms sounds a bit like Soft Cell’s Tainted Love. The current single, Live Outside, is eminently whistleable and currently getting plenty of airplay on Radio 1. It’s a punchy synth-rock tune on which Reynolds tones down the screaming and ramps up the melody. Why? “In the post-hardcore scene that we come from there’s this misconception that singing at the top of your range is the best way to get across angst and passion,” he says. “I’ve discovered my baritone on this album and fallen in love with how expressive it can be.”
That’s not to say that he’ll be duetting with Michael Ball any time soon. Another new one, Take My Country Back, has enough power and energy to light a football stadium. On Rabble Rouser they take on the skeletal electronic style of grime and Reynolds comes close to rapping — though he calls it “spoken word”.
But there is a new-found clarity and focus here that suggests that The Spark could be the album to take them beyond their sizeable cult following and cement them as one of the UK’s biggest bands. If you wrote them off as a terrible racket before, now’s the time to have another go.
Reynolds, Rolfe and bassist Chris Bat- ten began playing music together in their early teens in St Albans. They’ve been friends since primary school. Guitarist Rory Clewlow joined in 2003 when they named themselves Enter Shikari.
ALL OF them apart from Reynolds, who’s not far away in Finchley, still live in their home town. So they feel like they’ve been sailing steadily for long enough to sidestep cries of “Sellout!” as they begin to sound a b i t mo re accessible to newcomers. “People know that if we were going to do anything for a quick buck, we would have done it by now,” says Rolfe. “If we release a new song and it maybe isn’t as aggressive as our previous work they still trust us not to lose the integrity of our music.”
That integrity includes active engagement with the state of the world today. Airfield, a rare ballad, attempts to take some positives from adversity. Reynolds sings: “When the wind’s against you, remember this insight/That’s the optimal condition for birds to take flight.” Take My Country Back includes
‘People know that if we were going to do anything for a quick buck, we would have done it by now’