Twenty five years. That's a long time in dog years and even longer in rock 'n' roll years yet that is how long Shakra's recording career has lasted and as guitarist, Thom Blunier, notes: "I'm extremely proud and thankful, that this band is stil existing after 25 years of Rock'n'Roll. Those of you who have a clue the difficulties of existing as a band know, how precious and exceptional this is. I am ready for the next 25 years!"
Personally I have always had a take-them-or-leave-them attitude towards Shakra. I've never been grabbed by a single tune in particular and in some ways still haven't but taken as a whole Mad World is a pretty cohesive piece of work which flows nicely from beginning to end. Unusually three of the better songs are towards the back end of the album namely "Fake News" and "When It All Falls Down" which has a nicely understated guitar solo and equally neat chorus. "Turn The Light On" is the closest that Shakra have come to creating an earworm song for my ears, it just makes me nod my head in a way in which early Bon Jovi used to which in some ways sums up the band. Shakra remain a band out of time, they should have been around seven or eight years earlier to ride the tail end of the hair metal years and now be a nostalgic arena headiner all over Europe and possibly beyond. As it is they are, if nothing else, putting out material which deserves to be heard.
Track Listing:
- Fireline

- Too Much Is Not Enough

- A Roll Of The Dice

- Mad World

- When He Comes Around

- Thousand Kings

- I Still Rock

- Fake News

- When It All Falls Down

- Turn The Light On

- Son Of Fire

- New Tomorrow
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