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Take to the Skies

Enter Shikari

2007

Take to the Skies

Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Take to the Skies is the debut studio album by British rock band Enter Shikari. Following the demise of Hybryd, Enter Shikari was formed with Rou Reynolds on vocals, Rory Clewlow on guitar, Chris Batten on bass, and Rob Rolfe on drums. In 2003 and 2004, the group self-released three EPs – Nodding Acquaintance (2003), Sorry You're Not a Winner (2004) and Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour (2004) – that they sold at shows and used to help grow their fan base. With an increasing touring schedule, the group began using social networking platform Myspace. In August, the band posted a demo version of "Labyrinth", followed by a demo of "OK, Time for Plan B" in September. In mid-2006, the group established their own record label, Ambush Reality, and digitally released the "Mothership" single. Between July and October 2006, the band embarked on their first headlining tour of the United Kingdom. Recording sessions for Take to the Skies took place at The Outhouse in Reading with John Mitchell and Ben Humphreys. The group, Joel De'ath, Ben Shute, Ian Shortshaft and Tim Boardman contributed gang vocals. The group produced the sessions and Martin Giles mastered the recordings at Alchemy Soho in London. Take to the Skies was released on 19 March 2007. On the album's track listing, tracks 1, 5, 9, 11, 13 and 17 are untitled. However, the untitled tracks have been given names on the digital versions and other retailer descriptions. Track 1 is universally titled "Stand Your Ground; This Is Ancient Land". In most cases tracks 5, 9, 11, 13 and 17 are all titled "Interlude", sometimes being numbered. However, on the iTunes track listing 9 and 17 are both titled Reprise One and Two, respectively. Also, Track 17 is sometimes titled "Closing". The song "Sorry, You're Not a Winner" was later included on the soundtrack of EA Sports' NHL 08 video game.

Wikipedia

Rating

2.55

Votes

76

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Reviews

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Jun 22 2025
2

I'M SCREAMING. now i'm whispering. SCREAM whisper. -all this for 53 minutes

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Jun 18 2025
3

Enter Shikari combines metalcore with trance. When I first listened to them live at the Eurosonic Festival in 2007, I was impressed. Now I think it sounds a bit dated and the synth/dance is too rare to make the differentiate from other post-hardcore bands.

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Jun 21 2025
5

Love this! The energy is amazing, and the variations between screaming and singing are just right.

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Jun 21 2025
5

Best live gig I ever saw was enter Shikari opening for jay z and linkin park. Absolutely phenomenal. I love synthy screamy rock, and I love this.

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Jun 21 2025
4

As this album started I wasn’t sure I was up for the screaming… and wasn’t sure I could listen to this… and I was all ready to dislike this. But it grew and grew on me and parts of this kept drawing me in. Jonny Sniper seemed particularly good, then the unexpectedly nice Adieu followed and I realized I was enjoying the album. Good stuff!

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Jun 23 2025
4

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Mothership, No sssweat, Return to energiser, Sorry you are not a winner, Ok time for plan b

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Jul 21 2025
4

I seen these guys back in 2005 at a tiny gig at the viewfield hotel in Arbroath, was one of my favourite gigs at that venue, it absolutely kicked off. Loved their demos and didn’t mind this album but kinda lost interest in the band and the music shortly after. I don’t think this album holds up well today, But thank you to who ever added this for a nice personal trip up memory lane. 4 stars for the 2005 gig.

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Jun 19 2025
3

Post-hardcore, trance, metalcore, electronicore. Ni fu ni fa.

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Jun 19 2025
3

Modern alternative pop punk hangover with some cool synths

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Jun 20 2025
3

Some good metal 4 3

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Jun 20 2025
3

Pretty Good, didn't blow my mind though

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Jun 22 2025
3

Love the album art. I really want to love the album. But it sounds dated and, I hate to say it, predictable, which maybe is too harsh for such genre spanning work. There are elements which are great, like the synth element scrabbling around in the background, a nice contrast to the heavier guitar work. But overall it just didn't win me over.

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Jun 24 2025
3

Who knew all it took for me to hate screamo more was an English accent. Generally I didnt hate this (well I hated the more metalcore parts some) but eh. Wierd tonal shifts throughout that didn't really feel coherent.

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Jun 25 2025
3

Great energy, but just not my thing.

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Jun 25 2025
3

A great era, even if wasn't a huge fan of this band.

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Jul 10 2025
3

Not bad for this style, but I feel like there’s a lot of essential albums that should be included first. I guess I’m not the right person to make the criticism though!

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Jun 20 2025
2

No thanks. 2 stars.

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Jun 21 2025
2

Never quite understood this subgenre of metal, the technical breakdowns and screaming butting up against extended melodic sections and deeply passionate lyricism. Kind of feels like water and oil to me, the LP not really gelling into any kind of cohesive artistic product or statement in the course of its runtime

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Jun 23 2025
2

An alright hardcore emo rock album. It started out pretty strong and aggressive with the screaming but as it went on it mixed in normal vocals to where it was tolerable. If they stuck with the style in the latter half this would’ve been an ok album but it was not something I’d come back to. 4.4/10

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Jun 23 2025
2

This was a bit of a struggle. 2/5.

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Jul 07 2025
2

At the turn of the millennium, post-hardcore had seen a shift into the likes of emo stylings that would keep things fresh. Further, more progressive approaches to post-hardcore songwriting would come to define a new sound for the genre. Pieces of each culminate in the final ingredient of post-y2k post-hardcore: electronica. Enter Enter Shikari (lol), who helped to pioneer the relatively niche subgenre of electronicore by employing a liberal use of trance synthesizers in their other metalcore-style of post-hardcore. The result is inventive-yet-underwhelming. Lacks a lot of hard-hitting moments that would otherwise define a post-hc record. The only instance that comes to mind is the into to Sorry You're Not A Winner, which loses steam by the time it gets to the chorus. I will say the last three three tracks do a nice fake-out with the Adieu sounding like it would close the album before doing the ACTUAL final songs. Haha nice. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: Electronicore is a bit too niche to deserve a spot on the list but if it were 2002 albums? Sure why not.

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Jul 15 2025
2

So, I've concluded that I really can't deal with the screaming. But when you set that aside and just listen to the music, there's not really much substance to found here at all.

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Jul 18 2025
2

Quiet loud metal core with synths. Sorry I just find it unlistenable.

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Jun 30 2025
1

Absolutely terrible. For incels and thirteen year old boys only.

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Jul 26 2025
1

This aged like milk. Anyone who wants to discover great metalcore / post-hardcore acts infusing electronic elements into their compositions should try to listen to early Genghis Tron or The Armed first. And the production values on this thing are simply horrible (bad dynamics on the mix, thin-sounding drums and backing vocals...). I don't know what's the most appalling thing here... Bad taste or bad ear? I've just learnt through one of the reviews in this section that Enter Shikari once opened for Linkin Park. That might explain a few things... Ironically, that sort of gig didn't bring them the expected level of fame the band probably hoped for. It warranted them a place on this users' list, though. Better than nothing, I guess. 1/5 for the artistry and purposes of this list of essential albums. 5/10 for more general purposes (4/4 for the musicianship, 0/1 for the production values + 1/5 for the artistry). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 33 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 42 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 85 (including this one) ---- Émile, quelques récentes réponses au dessus... Je me suis retrouvé à devoir écrire une chronique non prévue au départ pour le site, en plus de la traduction de mon interview. D'où le fait que les nouvelles réponses se font attendre. Sorry ! J'espère que tu profites bien de ton été...

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