Shakra – Everest

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Being Swiss rockers Shakra must be quite difficult. They are an excellent band, with excellent musicians and a genuine talent for writing great hard rock songs. But they have one major problem, which they’ll probably never be able to shake. They sound almost exactly like Gotthard, who are also from Switzerland. It’s likely to always be something that will cloud many listeners’ opinions of Shakra’s music, which when given a chance, as previous two albums Infected and Fall have shown, is always of the highest calibre. And Everest is perhaps better still. Some of the big riffs (The Journey, Ashes To Ashes, Love & Pain, Regressive Evolution, Let Me Lie My Life To You, Dirty Money) are harder than previous efforts, with more groove and no loss of hooky choruses. Some of the other songs are less interesting (indeed, The Illusion of Reality and Anybody Out There are very run of the mill), but softer moments like Why and Hopeless rank amongst their best ballads to date. Overall this is probably Shakra’s best album, and certainly recommended as an entry point for anyone new to the band, including Gotthard fans.

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Shakra