ALBUM REVIEW: Dancing On The Frontline – Enter Shikari
A year after the release of ENTER SHIKARI’s seventh studio album A Kiss For The Whole World, they release Dancing On The Frontline, a ‘companion’ album including remixes, non-album singles with features, and live recordings. A Kiss For The Whole World was an innovative, sentimental and truly distinctive ENTER SHIKARI album, and the St Albans-based rock band clearly aren’t yet ready to let go of this era and have more to say as they commemorate it with their latest release. The band are known for their immersive and powerful live performances, and this means that their listeners can experience it time and time again, and with this album coming out on Blu-ray, they can watch it again too.
Goldfish quickly became a classic for ENTER SHIKARI, with fans singing along at every show, and the remix just enhances everything that made it so interesting, with added EDM style beats and sound effects. The chorus is still just as big, but the remix blends styles in a way that proves why ENTER SHIKARI are one of the most experimental bands in alternative music. While they’re no strangers to the electronic sound, they take it to the next level with this one, and it works effortlessly. Regrettably, it doesn’t have the little screams after the bridge, which isn’t an awful choice but they are definitely missed. The band continue with the Shikari Sound System remixes with Bloodshot, but with much more dramatic changes. It takes all the elements of the original beginning of the song while emphasising the trance vibes. While some of the stand-out parts of the original song are no longer included, that isn’t to say the remix isn’t good, and they serve completely different purposes.
After their original releases, there a couple of songs featuring other artists that are finally getting some recognition, and the first is The Void Stares Back (feat. WARGASM). This is a collaboration that just makes sense; ENTER SHIKARI’s intense sound pairs really well with WARGASM’s fun attitude, and both bands are very representative of the route that current alternative music is taking. Next is Bull with Cody Frost, and their vocals draw you in immediately, creating a really catchy and innovative track. AViVA is an artist that has created a name for herself in her own right, and is doing some really exciting things at the moment, and STRANGERS is no exception, with her vocals pairing seamlessly with Rou Reynolds’, creating a really beautiful and emotive song. The last of the features is Losing My Grip with Jason Aalon Butler of FEVER 333, a slightly heavier song with gritty guitars and a rap verse, and it’s just undeniably good.
The rest of the album is made up of live versions of tracks from A Kiss For The Whole World, and there’s a few factors to this. Firstly, ENTER SHIKARI are a live band through and through, and they sound just as good, if not even better, in this environment. It gives them a chance to perform in a more raw and stripped back kind of way, giving them the space to interpret the songs however they want, experimenting a bit, and there’s a new level of passion in these versions which just adds so much to them. The live version of Bull in particular feels way more memorable.
ENTER SHIKARI have a fanbase that just can’t get enough of everything that they do, and Dancing On The Frontline only adds to this in what is a creative and completely engaging companion album.
Rating: 8/10
Dancing On The Frontline is out now via SO Recordings.
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