Enter Shikari is one of those bands that you either love or hate. It took me a couple of years to really appreciate Enter Shikari as the music overall didn’t seem to hit the spot with me. I do love the blend of Post-Hardcore and Electro though and the lyrics are both political and poetic. One of their recent singles is ‘Radiate’ which I’ve listened to several times already. On terms of political lyrics, the main lyric that stood out for me is “To take away our expression is to impoverish our existence” which I found very powerful as the message behind it for me was that when we’re not allowed to express ourselves freely or have freedom of speech, our existence is consequently poverty stricken.
This open idea to how we’re ‘restrained’ on what we can say and therefore must conform under certain limitations. With the song ‘Radiate’ though I feel that the main message is drawn towards musicians and artists themselves who are sometimes forced to edit what goes into the mainstream by their labels. These strict limitations bring on huge complications on what can be expressed or spoken freely. The lyrics from Enter Shikari have always been fantastic and never fails to connect with their fans. The music itself in ‘Radiate’ makes it one of those songs you can bounce to when you see them live. Many people may disagree with me, but I found the beginning riff actually reminded me of Muse in a strange way, although I’m on about Muse’s heavier songs like ‘Hysteria’ for example. From there I felt myself turning the volume up as it progressed. I’d definitely recommend blasting ‘Radiate’ as loud as possible.
To summarise I thought this track was amazing from start to finish and the political message behind the lyrics were very powerful. I can tell why Shikari chose to release this song as a single as it certainly got me hyped for the album.
David Hammel
Relive The Music 