Rat Race
Enter Shikari
3.17 min • Ambush Reality • November 4, 2013
Little Bastard reviews
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Enter Shikari seem almost unstoppable. Their last album, the Eco-dub metal of A Flash Flood Of Colour, cemented their transition from gimmick dance metal band to fully fledge rock powerhouse, with something to say both musically and lyrically. Parts of that album still make me cry, with its overt message that we’re destroying our planet and ourselves, and I was worried they wouldn’t be able to match it. So far, outside of that album, Enter Shikari have released three singles, the stomping ‘Radiate’, the short but ferocious ‘Paddington Frisk’ and now the awesome ‘Rat Race’, my favourite of the three. These stand alone singles don’t better the previous material, but they at least equal it.
With its frenetic tempo changes, speed metal screams and double drums, meshed with its melodic hook and usual Shikari synths, the latest single is the perfect blend of the heavy and the pop. Their message is always intensely political, and ‘Rat Race’ is no different. Screaming about the pointless demands of rat race culture, where people work to consume over and over, breaking into a chorus of,
You see the purpose of the rat race defeats me,
When we’re gone, what’s left behind?
But there seems to be no end or no reason,
But we still carry on –
As always, it’s powerful stuff, and Enter Shikari seem to be the only prominent band talking about consumer culture and our intensely corrupt economic and political system with as much passion as most people talk about money and bitches. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why Enter Shikari are the most important band in music at the moment.
Its claustrophobic music video – half Blair Witch shaky camera chase and half neon lit spinning box of terror – totally captures the Groundhog Day on acid feel of the song, and visually manifests the thoroughly claustrophobic feeling that modern city life impresses upon those that naturally want to push against it. The single comes with a Shikari Sound System remix of previous single ‘Radiate’, which turns the club stomper into a laid back drum ‘n’ bass tinged lament that totally transcends the original track’s harshness and makes it a beautiful calm protest.
With a massive world tour accumulating in a headline slot at the famous Warped Tour at Alexandra Palace this Sunday, it looks like the world might be finally ready to take notice of the Shikari boys, and if the strength of their recent output and their political conviction is anything to go by, they could change the world. Till then, I’ll carry on screaming at the top of my lungs to anyone that will listen, and I hope you will too.
