Enter Shikari – Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible: Cacophonous and compelling

This is the sixth studio album from the British four-piece, who formed in 2003 in St Albans. Enter Shikari have always had an eclectic style, mashing together tones of heavy metal, post-punk, rap, dance and electronic. Their new release is an expansive journey through genres and ideas, produced by lead singer Rou Reynolds, who wants it to be the band’s definitive album. The collection is ambitious in its scope and operatic and classical in its development.

The record opens with piano chords developing into hectic beats on THE GREAT UNKNOWN. The follower, Crossing the Rubicon, feels more pedestrian and poppy, although it does contain an interesting lyric: “Love is blind but hate is deaf”. {The Dreamer’s Hotel} is a more interesting prospect, channelling post-punk and the Sleaford Mods in the verses, albeit with better quality production and a glossier chorus.

Apocaholics Anonymous (Main Theme in B Minor) sounds like someone having a mental breakdown in a scrap yard, raucous and slightly eerie. The cacophonous beats of T.I.N.A are seductive and compelling, perhaps best encapsulating the sound and preoccupations of the whole album. It is followed, somewhat incongruously but pleasingly, by Elegy for Extinction, a jaunty, light classical piece performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. The King is confrontational and angry with a dystopian sound, before resolving into the more melodic closing track.

This album is an explosion of cacophonous beats and existential dread that contains moments of beauty. It’s clearly a well-thought-out listening experience that takes us on a journey involving themes of extinction, meteors and satellites – to name but a few. Reynolds’ voice is versatile and the lyrics are absorbing and effective, despite sometimes employing very simplistic rhymes. The collection feels more successful when the sound veers from pop-rock into more experimental territory. It comes, it bashes your ears and expectations and leaves in a swathe of trumpets. A fascinating record.

Jessica Wall
Photo: Derek Ridgers

is released on 17^th April 2020. For further information or to order the album visit Enter Shikari – Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’s website here.

Watch the video for THE GREAT UNKNOWN here: