Enter Shikari is back where no one expected them. Without any prior announcement or teaser, the British band has just unveiled the resolute and optimistic “Higher Ground,” just a few months after the surprise release of their latest album, Lose Your Self!
Written during the recording sessions for Lose Your Self, the song had ultimately been shelved before being progressively finalized during the spring and summer. For Rou Reynolds, this new track sits fully within the band’s approach: “Our music has often consisted of taking a step back, looking at things as a whole. This gives us distance, clarity and often a strange sense of calm in the difficult and relentless times we are living through today. “Higher Ground” speaks precisely to the crucial importance of taking this broader perspective. Whether in our personal lives or in facing humanity’s greatest challenges, we often gain clarity and discover connections that escaped us when we take the time to step back.”
This new release comes as Enter Shikari prepares to hit the road again. The band will give two intimate shows on 21 and 22 October, respectively at the O2 Academy in Oxford and at the O2 Academy in Leicester. These two dates, already sold out, will be the first live appearances of the band since their May show in Tokyo and especially since the announcement of their hiatus for an undetermined duration.
Enter Shikari will then return to large European venues in November for their most extensive arena tour in the UK and in Europe. The tour will begin on 3 November in Hamburg before moving on to Düsseldorf, where the group will play its biggest headlining show in Germany, at the Mitsubishi Halle with 7,500 seats. The British leg will start on 13 November in Nottingham and will include Cardiff, Hull, Glasgow and Manchester, before wrapping up in London with two shows at the Alexandra Palace on 20 and 21 November, the latter already sold out. Holding Absence and The Callous Daoboys will support on the entire tour.
Fidelity to its commitment to the independent scene, Enter Shikari will also donate £1 from every ticket sold for the UK dates to the Music Venue Trust, in order to support grassroots venues at risk of closure. The band was the first artist to join this scheme during its 2024 tour.
“Higher Ground” follows Lose Your Self, released by surprise last April via So Recordings. Unveiled without any teaser campaign, the twelve-track album explores desolation, futility and despair in the face of the state of the world, while letting through a few glimmers of hope filter through. A move that seems to carry on today with this new track.
The band had marked 2024 with A Kiss For The Whole World, their first album to reach the top of the UK charts, after six previous Top 10s. Its tour was notably highlighted by their first concert at Wembley Arena, immortalized the following year on Live At Wembley. With more than 3,000 concerts under their belt, appearances at Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Download or Slam Dunk, as well as opening slots for The Prodigy and Linkin Park, Enter Shikari continues to write a story as unpredictable as it is ambitious. And with “Higher Ground,” the band proves once again that they clearly have not said their last word.
