Enter Shikari - 'Common Dreads' (Ambush Reality) Released 15/06/09

Enter Shikari sure seem to be onto a good thing. The cult hardcore types are building a dedicated fan base quicker than Gordon Brown’s disintegration, and are one of the UK’s hardest touring acts. The big question is whether the dreaded second album woes have reared their ugly heads on Common Dreads?

Maybe the grueling touring schedule took its toll, but Common Dreads doesn’t quite have the same immediate sparkle of debut Take to the Skies. Gone are the excitingly fresh sounds of Jonny Sniper and OK, Time For Plan B. Maybe they reinvented the genres so succinctly first time round, they have to plagiarise from their own making?

Luckily for the St Alban quartet there are enough killer tracks to forego a few fillers. Ignore the two-minute sixth form theatre project opening – a little too Flash Gordon than apocalyptic introduction – and Solidarity is thumping and un-ignorable.

Its tracks such as the storming Juggernauts that remind us why people shouldn’t underestimate the post-hardcore lads. Frontman Rou Reynolds sounds eerily like Mike Skinner on Zzzonked and the early 90s trance makes a welcome appearance. It sticks around for Havoc A, but often the industrial synths sound a little too like they’ve got The Matrix on repeat.

Common Dreads has little let-up as No Sleep Tonight’s vocals mimic Funeral for a Friend – in a good way, until Gap in the Fence that is, where the tiredness begins to creep in. Havoc B is a wasted three minutes, but this is in no way discrediting the quartet.

Enter Shikari’s live shows and unique blend of hardcore rock and trance is often lazily compared with Gallows. But Common Dreads offers glimmers of a punked up At the Drive-In mixed with all the delights of early Prodigy – and a bloody good thing that is to.