Throwback Thursday: Enter Shikari 'Take To The Skies'

Image: Enter Shikari

One album that will go down as one of the most important for alternative music in recent memory is undoubtedly Enter Shikari's 2007 debut, Take To The Skies.

It communicated a completely unpredictable, eccentric sound that bridged the gap between rock music and depths of strange electronic realms unlike any other outfit had before.

Between the onslaught of chug heavy riffs and surreal synth effects there's moments of genuine serenity, timely moments of calm and peace that compliment each end of the musical spectrum.

Atmospheric seems a bit of a cliché term, but Take To The Skies was a lot more than that. The echoing 'Reprise' interludes were perfectly timed between tracks; 'Adieu' offered an insight into a much softer side of the band to highlight diversity in their sound and serious musical know-how. 

The aforementioned moments of calmness gave it a whole new dimension. For many, the album will certainly be regarded as a heavy one, but it was those small vulnerable moments where everything is brought to a halt that made the record a lot more accessible than a consistently heavy one. 

This was the key to its popularity when it first emerged, offering somewhat of an explanation for a post-hardcore album peaking at number four in the UK charts.

Tapping into its otherworldly sound, the record owes much of that to the unbelievably good sound effects Rou managed to extract from his synth.

Even back in the early days, he seemed to have an ability to create ethereal sounds that should have sounded pretty absurd.

The reach for the laser synths of 'Return to Energiser' (listen below), for example, were largely unprecedented from such a band until Shikari came along with their genre bending style and changed all of that.

The mere fact that the whole thing was generally all a bit strange: a strange sound, strange track names, extra terrestrial artwork and a group of, at the time, intriguingly dressed lads made it even more appealing.

It tapped into an equally oddly dressed generation of outcasts through the sheer relatable factor they had; resultantly Enter Shikari became a gateway band into much heavier music for many.

It was something that merged so many different genres together and somehow made them all stick. It's still hard to work out how they managed it, but what's important is that they did.

For a debut album, it was a monumental effort. Not just in terms of how impressive it was, but for its bravery and ambition.

With so much going on, it could easily have put a lot of people off. Thankfully it didn't, and Take To The Skies provided the foundation for a band that's still at the forefront of alternative music nearly ten years on.

Words: Brad Lengden

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