Trancecore? Did somebody say trancecore? Somebody on Last.fm seems to think so, anyway...on the other hand, Wikipedia lists trancecore as a subgenre of hardcore techno, which, just so we're clear, has nothing to do with hardcore as an offshoot of punk. Even so, it's not so hard to see why somebody might want to call the UK's Enter Shikari trancecore. In fact, one really need look no further than "Enter Shikari," the first proper track of their full-length debut Take To The Skies. The track starts with a synthesized arpeggio and synthesized bass kick, before vocals, heavier (acoustic) drumming, and a chunky guitar come in. The song is otherwise pretty straightforward post-hardcore, with the trance-like synth line fading background to foreground throughout the song.
So yeah, I guess "trancecore" is as good a name as any, because they don't really settle on any one -core genre, hitting the highs of post-hardcore, metalcore, and straight hardcore, all with trance aesthetics. "Mothership" again kicks off with a line plenty of budding trance musicians would kill to write, leading into a Chimaira-esque metalcore breakdown (hey, who says the breakdown has to happen in the middle?). A synth melody draws attention away from the guitar sneaking in, a crunchy buildup, and then another post-hardcore style buildup before breaking drifting into a clean guitar/vocal section. They further play up the electronic influences on several primarily-electronic interludes, the third of which includes a more drum'n'bass sound than the trance elements elsewhere on the disc. The last surprise they throw into the disk is "Adieu," more of an emo-style song--by which I mean decent emo, not the crap that passes for radio rock.
When I first saw the description of this band I was kind of hoping for something more like Celldweller, where the electronic influences feel more organic in the music. Instead, as one of my friends put it, sometimes the electronic passages seem artificially fused into the music--sort of a, "we're doing this to be creative but didn't quite think it through." On the other hand, it's rather interesting in other places, and taken from the perspective of experimental music and post-hardcore as a general genre, it's pretty good. I also expect that as they continue on as a band, the electronics will feel more and more natural. At any rate, this is ultimately a pretty solid disc that fans of post-hardcore or experimental music should check out.
