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Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, Swiss Hard Rock band Shakra released their twelfth studio album Mad World (2020). Then, the world shut down, tours were canceled/rescheduled, and musicians were forced to “wait out” the situation. Instead of sitting back and doing nothing, the band started working on new material for their thirteenth studio album Invincible (2023). The album comes out on June 30, 2023 through AFM Records. Metal Express Radio’s Lana Teramae had a chat with Shakra’s lead vocalist Mark Fox about Invincible, what it’s like putting together a setlist for the live shows, his musical influences, and a whole lot more. Band Lineup Mark Fox – lead vocals Thom Blunier – guitars Thomas Muster – guitars Dominik Pfister – bass guitar Roger Tanner – drums Check out the band’s latest single from Invincible, “Tell Her That I’m Sorry.”
Switzerland’s Shakra are Rock ‘N Roll survivors. They’ve released more albums than you can count on your fingers and they’re still in game after 25 years. Their latest release is described as “hard, catchy and energetic Rock music.” The good news is that the band’s level of experience is evident in song writing and musicianship and they end up sounding like a hybrid of Dokken and AC/DC. The bad news is the vocalist’s delivery lacks range and persuasion. It’s similar to present day Don Dokken where high notes and powerful delivery are largely absent. Leading off, “Fireline” is a rock solid burner that immediately stakes out the bands turf: quick melodic hooks, muscular riffs, brooding bass lines, and elemental beats. Enough space is left between notes and passages to let the hooks sink in and each band member be heard. “When He Comes Around” and “Son Of Fire” are similarly styled songs that play to these strengths and are album highlights. The former opens with a hefty melodic riff before retreating to create a sense of space in the song. Solid punches are thrown and landed between the guitar and rhythm section and the vocal performance works well. On the latter, conservative riffing is abandoned for pinch harmonics and raucous melodic activity throughout. Churning bass drives the song and shotgun blast hooks are triggered at every opportunity. The remaining songs aren’t as refined but are by no means without merits. “Too Much Is Not Enough” delivers a Judas Priest like churn and menace, the title track uses pauses to reinforce riffs to good effect, and “Turn The Light On” opens with a nice melodic guitar run before linking up with the vocalist to deliver a hook laden chorus. There’s even a ballad to close out. If an occasional high pitched …READ MORE
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Tune in the Daily Album Premiere Show to hear the finest metal releases just now hitting the streets! See this week’s schedule here: DAY BAND ALBUM Monday Megadeth Dystopia Tuesday Shakra High Noon Wednesday Primal Fear Rulebreaker Thursday Dream Theater The Astonishing Songs from these new releases will be featured at 6:00/18:00 CET & Midnight/Noon EST on the days indicated. All featured albums will have a short review posted the day it’s on the show! The FRIDAY edition of the Daily Album Premiere show contains 3 tracks from each of the Daily Premiere Albums. Be sure to tune in here! See all the new albums on power rotation here!
Almost twenty years and ten albums, that is the current score of one of Switzerland’s finest rockers, Shakra. As a constant in Swiss Rock and considerable success in their home country it is difficult to understand why their high quality Hard Rock never really made it outside Switzerland, but maybe that is going to change now. High Noon is a fine release that is definitely in the top third of Shakra’s discography to date. With uptempo tracks like the first single “Hello” and “The Storm”, cool rockers like “Watch Me Burn” or “Around The World”, even containing a good ballad, the album delivers everything that one can expect from a Hard Rock album today. Only occasionally the band acts too generic like in ‘Raise Your Hands’, but that is easily made up by no less than 10 excellent rock songs to nod your head to and sing along with.
Eight albums in twelve years — that reminds of those good old days when fans didn’t have to wait five years before their favorite band would release a new album. These Swiss guys are positively old fashioned, and that also goes for their music too. By now, the Rock world should have noticed this band from the Alps, as their prior albums entered the charts in their home country with high scores (and the German charts as well). Their most recent release, Everest, actually made it up to #4 in the Swiss album charts. Of course, as usual, that was cause for criticism accusing the band of being too mellow and too commercially orientated. But, that always happens when a band becomes successful, and Back On Track shows that Shakra doesn’t listen to those voices and instead continues down the same road of simple, but effective Rock songs that made all their albums so enjoyable. There is only one main difference between the new album and its predecessors. Singer Mark Fox left the band last year, and Back On Track is the first album with John Prakesh at the microphone. But, the new singer was chosen wisely, as he has a similarly rough voice as does Mark, and his performance leaves nothing hanging in the balance. In every of the twelve tracks, from up-tempo songs like “B True B You”, to mid-tempo stompers like “Unspoken Truth”, or slow tracks like “When I See You”, John amazes and gives these otherwise good tracks just the last kick to make them great songs. With dominant guitars, but radio-friendly melody lines, Shakra manage to place one foot solidly in each of the worlds of mainstream and heaviness. Back On Track is the strongest release of Shakra to date because there is no bad or even mediocre track on the whole album. Gotthard and Krokus, …READ MORE
The last few months the Hard Rock scene has been boiling, giving life to new bands that try to make their way out of oblivion. Although, this is kind of cruel to these hard working acts –at least most of them- the fans of this scene can help but feel lucky. There is plenty of music out there for this scene that seems to be revived inside this Metalcore turbulence surrounding us. Well, in order to be precise the ‘newcomer’ tag cannot be placed on the front cover of Shakra’s third discographic attempt. This Swiss band has been around from the mid 90s and has already two full length albums prior to this one in question. Judging by the quality of the previous albums one can admit that Everest is a logical title since the band has been in a rising course. The main elements in Hard Rock are the striking melodies and –of course– the hard hitting guitar riffs that are there to lift you up. “Ashes To Ashes” serves exactly these purposes entering with a catchy main guitar riff and Mark Harsh vocals. The main melody has the arena Rock air with a catchy structure that sets anchor to the listeners mind from the very beginning. “Love & Pain” comes next and the Gotthard influences become something more than vivid. It’s okay when a band has striking influences but with Shakra this becomes way too obvious. The vocals, the guitars and the general song structure breathes Gotthard’s Lipservice air just like “Let Me Lie My Life To You” does. After additional CD spins this is the only drawback in the new Shakra album; the Swiss band cannot escape its influences putting a limit to their potential, that judging by the quality of the compositions, are of a high …READ MORE
Infected is already the sixth studio album from one of Switzerland’s best known Heavy Rock bands. The style they play will not come as a surprise: Melodic Hard Rock. Somehow that seems to be the stuff the Swiss guys do best, just think of Gotthard, Killer, Tempesta, Cobra, and, of course, the godfathers of Swiss Rock: Krokus. Shakra squeeze into the same musical corner and because of this sound, well, very Swiss. But, that is everything except bad. The level of quality among all those bands from the midst of Europe is extraordinarily high, and before going into detail, let it be said that Shakra also deliver quality material and will not disappoint fans of this said style. The band stated before the release that they consider this their best album to date, which is absolutely true in one regard: The production is very appropriate, powerful, yet clear and warm, while it still retains the necessary punch with heavy-sounding guitars. Whether or not the compositions are really their best will probably be in the eye of the beholder, as Infected does not stray far from the path they walked with releases since Rising in 2003, which marked the album singer Mark Fox joined the band. He is also the most striking feature of the band, as he carries the weight to make the songs work, even more than the cool guitar riffs … and guess what? He also sounds incredibly Swiss with his raw, but still melodic voice similar to Marc Storace (Krokus) or Steve Lee (Gotthard). The similarity of bands and style is sometimes striking, and one may have difficulties telling the bands apart by only listening to a song or two. But, that cannot be a factor to judge the band by, and should only be stated as …READ MORE
Shakra’s Fall album starts off with a radio/club version of a song called ”Take Me Now;” supposedly the song most likely to be released as a single. A really catchy song with a somewhat funny chorus. It actually sounds like Mark Fox (on vocals) sings “take me now from behind” but really he sings … well, not that … phew! Makes you wonder what direction these poodle rockers where headed … Next song on the album is “Chains of Temptation,” almost just as catchy as the first, and you almost want to continue singing “Take Me Now” as the chorus starts. A very John Norum-like (Europe) solo takes you to the end of this song. In “Out of Control,” Shakra speeds things up a bit, no longer relying on the 80s Def Leppard sound like in the other two songs, but unfortunately “Out Of Control” is just as easily forgotten as it is a fast track. All of a sudden you’re into the song “All or Nothing” where the past has been dropped and they almost have that calm D.A.D. sound going … just not that fascinating. The chorus almost gets a grip on you when in the middle of it you’re already listening to another song. “How It feels” is the first of two ballads on this album. Mark Fox really does sound a bit like Joe Elliot sometimes, with his raw and hoarse voice … and that is a compliment! You get the feeling that they are cutting the songs shorter and shorter as the seventh song “Fall,” like the album title, starts. It does, however, have a fantastic solo at the end. “Walk On Water” is again an up paste track with more hard-hitting drums, but with a chorus that just doesn’t fit in, and it seems …READ MORE