Released by: AFM Records

Release Date: February 5th, 2016

Genre: Hard Rock

Links: https://www.facebook.com/ShakraBand

Line Up:

Mark Fox – vocals
Thom Blunier – guitar
Thomas Muster – guitar
Dominik Pfister – bass
Roger Tanner – drums

Tracklist:

01. Hello
02. High Noon
03. Into Your Heart
04. Around The World
05. Eye To Eye
06. Is It Real
07. Life’s What You Need
08. The Storm
09. Raise Your Hands
10. Stand Tall
11. Watch Me Burn
12. Wild And Hungry

Shakra, outside of their music, is a band I don’t know a lot about. They’ve never really made a huge impact in the US and even in the research I did to write this review I couldn’t nail down a ton of information about them. It’s a shame that they’re not given a better acknowledgment here because they’ve been a favorite of mine for a while now. They’re on the same page for me as Pretty Maids and Harem Scarem: truly talented, but sadly overshadowed by far inferior bands. With the upcoming release of their 10th album in almost 20 years, the band is demonstrating why they have so much staying power and why they’ve remained fairly popular overseas.

High Noon brings the return of longtime vocalist Mark Fox and apparently a renewed passion (to an extent) for the band as a whole. Not that John Prakesh wasn’t a fantastic singer and the albums he sang on weren’t excellent, but the band really wasn’t entirely the same without Fox. His voice and addition to the band was what really set them on the road to what they’ve achieved so far. Shakra has always had the ability to write some of the most catchy and memorable hard rock songs, amply demonstrated on tracks like “Into Your Heart,” “Is It Real,” “Stand Tall,” and “Wild and Hungry.” If I had any complaint about the High Noon it would be that, though it is a great listen, it doesn’t jump out as much as past releases have. The passion is there, it just doesn’t shine through on every track.

Even with that one complaint it is still an excellent album that deserves far more interest than it will likely get. Few bands with this number of years around can still release albums as good as Shakra does. Even though High Noon doesn’t grab me with every track, it is still one worthy of my collection. If you have always loved this band, or are simply happy Fox is back, then get it for sure!

Written by: Chris Martin