Take To The Skies: Ten Years On

Ten years ago marked a moment in my life that I would never turn back on, a moment in which I knew that I had discovered something that I would always hold dear to my hear.

In 2007 a relatively unknown band called Enter Shikari released their very first album Take To The Skies. This debut would then move on to become one of the best and most experimental albums ever to grace my iPod. Within the first week, TTS sold 28,000 copies, was placed at number 4 in the official UK album chart and put Shikari where they belonged, in the spotlight.

With songs that could punch you right in the eardrums with its heavy riffs, machine gun drumming and aggressive vocals, TTTS would go down in history and shove Enter Shikari to the front of the hardcore/experimental and downright crazy music scene.
With the well-known single Sorry You’re Not A Winner, which everyone may know as the ‘clap, clap, clap’ song (heathens) and other such powerhouse tracks as Anything Could Happen In The Next Half Hour, Mothership, Labyrinth and one of my personal favourites No Sssweat, TTTS had everything a band would want from a debut album.

Although the St Alban’s quartet had previously released other demo EPs such as Nodding Acquaintance– featuring tracks such as Frozen Landscape and Catch 22, TTTS is really where things started to get real. Instead of playing in their friends’ front rooms and parties, the band would venture on a tour, one show I was particularly lucky enough to attend at the Bath Pavilion.

The mixture of the punchy synths and the guttural growling from Rou, the heaviness of the riffs laid down by Rory C, the wonderful bass and backing singing from Chris and the powerful and machine-like drumming from Rob created something that I don’t believe existed in that form before, it marked the start of a movement and a career that would take the boys worldwide (too rightly so!).

Now, in 2017, Enter Shikari are taking their first album on a worldwide tour (sadly I will be one person who will miss it) and they will be cranking the nostalgia up to 11 and inviting everyone to board the Mothership.

One track on TTTS, entitled Today Won’t Go Down In History, is exactly the opposite of what happened the day I picked up the album, it would go on to span a fandom for the following three studio albums, bootleg CDs, singles and ten live shows, all of which I have experienced.

Enter Shikari still stand strong today, delivering a powerful message of unity, defiance and love for one another, whilst not scared to make their political standpoint heard, they do it without reservation and with the moral fibre you want from the famous.

What a ten years it has been.