Having formed in the suburban area of St. Albans back in 2003, Enter Shikari are one of the most hard working UK bands in existence. To date the band have performed well over 650 live shows, and characterised by their bricolage of glow sticks and mosh pits are a joy to behold. In the November of 2006, Enter Shikari became the second unsigned band in history to have played a sold out show at the London Astoria; the first band to have achieved this having been The Darkness. Enter Shikari have achieved great success for themselves over the past 12 months and they need not thank anyone for that but themselves. For their hard work and dedication Enter Shikari were approached by a number of large record companies, however turned down these offers and their début album ‘Take To The Skies’ was thus released through their own Ambush Reality label, and once more they have chosen to release their material themselves with this Mini Album ‘The Zone’. Comprising of eight tracks this is basically a collection of B-Sides and Rarities from the band and although their album has sold over 100 000 copies to date and has therefore been certified ‘Gold’, this latest release from Enter Shikari is unlikely to achieve anywhere near this amount of success.
Kicking off with ‘The Feast (demo)’, if you’re a fan of the band listening to this one then even at this early stage you’ll already be beginning to pose the question as to what exactly the band are playing at in releasing this Mini-Album. The quality of this track is astoundingly poor, the drums in particular being extremely badly recorded and providing a sound that is tinny and distant. It’s not a promising start to the CD whatsoever, and as the Mini Album progresses things just seem to go from bad to worse. Three of the tracks here are Demo’s so are obviously not going to be exceptionally well recorded, whilst another is from a BBC Live Session with Zane Lowe which has not been pulled off particularly well, one is a poorly executed remix, and the remaining four are all B-Side’s that should rightly have remained so. Together these eight tracks seem to offer up a recipe for disaster, a sure fire compilation of eight tracks that were never truly destined to be packaged together and sold.
It’s difficult to draw positives from a CD of tracks that basically never cut the mustard in the first place. One track I do feel faired well in its outing here however is the Mini Album’s seventh track ‘Mothership’. Originally released in August 2006 as a download only single, the track impressed me back then and still impresses now. It is a finely crafted song, however even the inclusion of this track on the release is really of little use or appeal to fans of the band given that the track was finely tuned and properly mastered for inclusion on their ‘Take To The Skies’ album. A re-issue of a Demo track we’ve since been provided with a finished version of is as far as I’m concerned entirely unnecessary, even for the most hardcore of Enter Shikari fans (the majority of whom will most likely have downloaded the Demo when it was digitally released anyway).
I hate to say it, but ‘The Zone’ for me seems to serve no other purpose other than to make a few extra pounds by putting out a release that never should have happened. Usually this would be the point where I’d point the finger at the major label for cashing in on a band and trying to squeeze as much out of them as possible, however given that the band themselves are the ones that own and run their record label; there is no one to blame here other than Enter Shikari themselves. I did not see this release coming from the band, nor do I feel that fans of theirs should humour them in purchasing this scrappy mess of a Mini Album. At a price of £4.99; ‘The Zone’ is grossly overpriced for what it is and is a CD I strongly suggest you avoid the purchase of. By all means however check out the bands ‘Take To The Skies’ album as it is a terrifically strong release and I am sure that you will be impressed with what you will find there. There is currently no talk of an album number two in the woodwork, but mark my words; if and when it does indeed surface for release, I can guarantee that it will make for a highly explosive listening experience.
Label: Ambush Reality
Release Date: 12th November 2007
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
