The Mindsweep
By Enter Shikari
UK Release Date - 19th January 2015
It's that time of year again for the UK
group Enter Shikari to give us another helping of politically charged
electronic metal (if you can even call it that) in the form of The Mindsweep.
As always they have delivered, bringing us new sounds and always leaving you
guessing what they will do next. Even though the band are ever moving forward
with their sound, there are elements this time round that are reminiscent of
their debut album Take To The Skies, as well as elements from all their other
albums. Before we go any further I feel like I should put this here… ENTER
SHIKARI ARE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BANDS OF ALL TIME! They were the first band I
paid to see (yeah they took my gig virginity) so I am going to try to be as
unbiased as possible but no promises there.
The album opens, with one of a pair of
songs: The Appeal & The Mindsweep I, while closing with the second of the
same name. These songs are basically propaganda tools telling us all the
political themes they are yet again trying to shove down our throats in the
most musical way possible. However, as the song opens I am given a strong sense
of suspense, as well as being given the insightful message: open your mind.
This seems to be the theme throughout the album, question everything and don’t
take things at face value.
Following this we have a song, The One True
Colour, which reminds me an awful lot of original Shikari, back when they were
easily defined as electronic hardcore. With its heavy use of screams from front man Rou the band show us their
true hardcore roots. This completely blew my mind into tiny pieces as I
expected a lot more dubstep as previously heard in their album Flash Flood of
Colour. However even though it is similar to early Shikari you can still see
that this is new Shikari. You feel maturity with their writing showing that
they are older and wiser than back when they started. In particular, this is
shown in the breakdown as it is incredibly well written and it seems to have
become the sounds we are seeing more and more from their newer work.
I had only just recovered from the
mind-blowing song The One True Colour when I was barraged by an even better
song, Anaesthetist. I was still picking bits of my brain up off the floor when
I had my proverbial socks knocked off. This song is the complete opposite side of
the spectrum of the norm Enter Shikari sound. It sounds as new as their songs get, and
damn it makes you want to dance! It’s the kind of song that could play in any
club and no one would ask why it had been put on the playlist. It is blindingly
obvious why they released it as a single, it’s simply a chart topper.
Even with the strength of it so far,
this juggernaut of an album was not slowing down for anyone, so if you were not
holding on tight by now you were obviously going to be left behind. The Last
Garrison is yet another song which would not be out of place on one of their
earlier albums. It's as if they have written the album for those who have not
listened to their work since Take To The Skies, doing a run through of their
albums before this to make sure everyone is up to date and on the same page.
This is further shown in the next track; Never Let Go Of the Microscope, where
it truly starts to differ from the other tracks. I am literally unable to find
the words to best describe this sound as it is completely different to anything
else Shikari have written before. However it ends with sounds very reminiscent
to Mothership off of Take to The Skies, and the whole effect of the song is
immense. It is a slower tempo as if they were giving people a break from the
fast paced action of the earlier songs, as well as being a chance to show the
agenda to which the album is trying to have people do; open your mind and not
allow people to just tell you how things are.
This message is yet again shown in Myopia,
saying that the people are ‘living in denial, of science’. This song musically
starts out slow but builds in tempo as well as becoming a heavier song, giving
the sense that the album is going to get going again at high speeds.
As predicted, the next track on the album
is There is a Price on Your Head which is definitely one of their heavier songs
they have written, especially within recent years. Not only that, it has a very
unconventional start compared to many of the other Enter Shikari songs. The
intro to this song reminds me of mathcore and is rather unstructured. However, this
being said, I have to say I think this is the best song on the album, with the
raw passion and emotion shown in it. I love the line ‘we must have structure’ eventhough ironically it is their least structured song. This technique gives yet another
political statement from the band of not needing social classes. If the band
continues on putting out the amount of political ideologies they spew out in
their music they could start their own political party within the next year.
Overall the album The Mindsweep is yet
another outstanding output from the camp of Shikari leaving you wanting more. I
have had this album on repeat more or less constantly since it came out so it
is hard to say a bad word about it. They may have put out political ideas
throughout but never too much to overshadow the music itself. I love how the
album shows how they do not take themselves too seriously and it really shows
the immense power of writing Enter Shikari can achieve. They really are a band
that will be around for a very VERY long time.
Favourite Tracks:
Anaesthetist
The Last Garrison
Myopia
Forteloud Rating:
Video Links:
Anaesthetist
The Last Garrison
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