Enter Shikari - Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible (Album Review)
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Written by Milly McMahon
Photo: Derek Ridgers
Over the course of almost two decades, Enter Shikari have risen from electronicore scenesters to arena headliners, building and maintaining a cult following along the way. Appealing to a wide range of ages and a diverse set of musical inclinations, while initially creating within a divisive genre, the band are pioneers who continually pose challenges with their left-field productions.
On their sixth studio album to date, ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’, Enter Shikari realise their most politically pointed body of work to date. Known for their highly charged opinion pieces, the band use each track here to catapult themselves back into the conversation.
Rich in frustration, and fuelled by intent, the standout pieces Marionettes I and Marionettes II illuminate the band's most exceptional talents. Marching forward, bursting with a palpable sense of vengeance, the songs’ undulating structures and electronic instrumentation feel rousing.
Similarly, Satellites is engineered to set arenas alight with its energy, which is fuelled by soaring melodies and thrashing, headbanging beats. It’s a distillation of the reasons why Enter Shikari enjoy such stratospheric popularity, but these flashes of brilliance are undermined by ill-advised filler.
Apøcaholics Anonymøus (Main Theme in B Minor) is a wasteful dirge that’s as awful as its title. And ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’ is also painfully front-loaded with its worst moments. Poor sequencing strands its best songs beyond track eight, leaving Rou Reynolds’ most provocative polemics on Trump, climate change and the general deterioration of society washed out and diluted.
Enter Shikari have returned with a powerful manifesto but the attendant sense of chaos has over-complicated their message. Best experienced over multiple listens to allow its peaks to come into view, ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’ will satisfy die-hard fans while alienating others.
Enter Shikari Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed November 11 2020 - SOUTHAMPTON O2 Guildhall Southampton
Thu November 12 2020 - MANCHESTER O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester
Fri November 13 2020 - CARDIFF Cardiff University Students Union
Sat November 14 2020 - LONDON Alexandra Palace
Mon November 16 2020 - MIDDLESBROUGH Middlesbrough Town Hall
Wed November 18 2020 - EDINBURGH Usher Hall
Thu November 19 2020 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Fri November 20 2020 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Sat November 21 2020 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy Birmingham
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