Enter Shikari biography
Enter Shikari are a British post-hardcore band formed in 2003 in St Albans, Hertfordshire. They combine post-hardcore and various heavy metal sub-genres, such as metalcore and alternative metal, with elements of various electronic genres, such as electronica, dubstep, trance, industrial and occasionally drum and bass, creating a particularly unique sound. The band is named after a boat belonging to Roughton "Rou" Reynolds' uncle, and a character in a play which he wrote before forming the band, both of which are named Shikari. Shikari also means 'Hunter' in Marathi, Persian, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali. Their debut album, Take to the Skies was released on 19 March 2007 and reached No. 4 in the Official UK Album Chart. Their second album, titled Common Dreads, was released on 15 June 2009 and debuted on the UK Albums Chart at 16. Their third studio album, A Flash Flood of Colour was released on 16 January 2012 and was positioned at the top of the UK Album Chart for almost its entire week of release, however it eventually debuted on the chart at 4. The band are currently embarking on the A Flash Flood of Colour World Tour.
In 1999 a band named Hybryd formed, consisting of Rou (/raʊ/) Reynolds on guitar and vocals, Chris Batten on bass guitar, and Rob Rolfe on drums. They released an EP called Commit No Nuisance which featured the tracks "Perfect Pygmalion", "Look Inside", "Torch Song", "Honesty Box" and "Fake". In 2003, with the addition of guitarist Liam "Rory" Clewlow, Hybryd became Enter Shikari. Rou focused his musical efforts on vocals and electronics instead.
During 2003 and 2004, the band released three demo EPs (Nodding Acquaintance, Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour and Sorry You're Not A Winner) that were available from their gigs and their website, featuring original versions of some songs that were eventually rerecorded for their debut album, Take To The Skies. They had another demo EP planned for release in 2005 (no such EP materialized, although recordings surfaced online). For this the first versions of Return To Energiser and Labyrinth were recorded. Early versions of OK Time For Plan B and We Can Breathe In Space were also recorded around this time but it's unclear if these were destined for the EP. In August 2006 they released a video of, the limited-edition single "Mothership" which became the single of the week on the iTunes Store. Their first physical single featured re-recorded versions of "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which had previously been featured on one of the demo EPs. It was released on 30 October 2006. It was limited to 1000 copies of each format and sold out within the first week of release. In mid January 2007, Enter Shikari's first single, "Mothership", entered the UK singles chart for one week at number 151, on Downloads only (despite its physical formats not being eligible for charts at the band's request). This was followed a week later by "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which charted at number 182 on the singles chart (despite its physical formats being ineligible for charts at the band's request) and number 146 in the Download Chart. In addition "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B" featured on the EA Sports video game titles NHL 08 and Madden 08. Enter Shikari secured a spot on the Gibson/MySpace stage at 2006's Download Festival. They also had interviews with popular music press such as Kerrang! and Rock Sound. On 4 November 2006, they became only the second unsigned band to ever sell out London Astoria (the first being The Darkness).
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