Enter Shikari
Anything Can Happen In The Next Half-Hour

With squadrons of trance arpeggios and almost Europop vocals flying over the top of the opening riffs, Enter Shikari are clearly trying to do something different here, and I can't fault them for that... think 'Evanescinobi vs Faithless Ninja' and you wouldn't be too far off the mark.

'Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour' is a veritable journey of different metal textures, and the dance influence takes it to a place that this St Albans-spawned band’s contemporaries aren't likely to explore. But the issue I have is that the song isn't actually that good. I think the classic Achilles Heel of also-ran metal bands is their tendency to focus on headbang-ability and stylistic identity and neglect the actual tune they are whistling. It may well rock like a bitch live, and moshers may well be bouncing off the ceiling like rubber balls in a Bravia ad, but the song beneath this carefully constructed battle armour is a bit of a Linkin Park b-side, with a vocal line I'm sure I've heard hundred times before.

Enter Shikari have developed an enviable following all off their own back, but unless selling out The Astoria is to be the pinnacle of their career, they need to discover the wild world of writing killer hooks.