Photo by: Darren Craig
Official press release:
Dead Poet Society release their third album, Monarch, on Oct. 2 via Spinefarm Records. The announcement arrives with the towering new single, “Cold”, and an accompanying video directed by the band’s own Jack Underkofler, with Blackwolf Imaging. Drummer Will Goodroad shares:
“People today are constantly performing for one another, competing for a place in social hierarchy. We slowly reshape ourselves, cutting away parts of who we are to gain acceptance and validation. Over time, we lose touch with our passions, forget why we do what we do, and stop recognizing who we really are – or what we truly believe, if anything at all. ‘Cold’ is about recognizing that reality and choosing to indulge in it anyway.”
“Cold” follows the release of “Roach” and “Sinner Systems”, two tracks that offered an early glimpse of Monarch’s balance of weight, melody, and emotional intensity. The new music has drawn swift praise, with Revolver calling it “tense and knotted with danceable dread,” Kerrang! describing the songs as “seething,” and Consequence hailing the tracks as a “glorious success.”
Produced by Mutemath frontman Paul Meany (Twenty One Pilots, Pierce The Veil), mixed by GRAMMY Award-winning Adam Hawkins (Turnstile, Yungblud), and recorded at Valley View Studios and The Park in Los Angeles, Monarch finds Dead Poet Society digging deeper into the instincts that have always defined the band. Vocalist and guitarist Underkofler said of the band’s approach to writing Monarch:
“We wanted to carve out our own piece of territory. I just wanted to swing for the fences with this one. All the things I felt made us, I wanted to see how much deeper I could go with them and try to boil down the essence of the feeling that makes Dead Poet Society who we are.”
The result builds on the foundation established by 2021’s -!- and 2024’s FISSION, delivering the band’s most expansive and emotionally resonant collection yet. It’s an album that embraces contrast, weight and melody, vulnerability and defiance, and exploits the tension between them.
Monarch is available for pre-order now on multiple limited-edition vinyl variants, including a version featuring an expanded booklet, as well as CD, and digitally.
Arriving alongside the album announcement is The House, an interactive world inspired by the Monarch artwork, where a young girl sits ringed by phones. Some fans have already uncovered the first clue: a phone number curiously printed on a piece of merch in the band’s webstore. Fans are invited to stop by for a visit and see what they find.
Monarch track listing:
- “Hollywood On Fire”
- “Roach”
- “Die If You Don’t”
- “Sinner Systems”
- “Lost”
- “Cold”
- “Psalm 136”
- “Dead On The Inside”
- “Miami For The Weekend”
- “Get Hot”
- “The Park”
- “The Art Of Suffering”
