Dead Poet Society Push Modern Rock Forward on New Album Monarch
Dead Poet Society have released their third full-length album, Monarch, today, October 2, through Spinefarm Records.
The 12-song project builds on the Southern California band’s combination of distorted guitars, elastic bass, electronic production and soaring hooks—but refuses to remain inside a single rock-radio lane. Across its 41-minute runtime, Monarch moves between heavy alternative rock, dark electronic grooves, punk energy and atmospheric melodies. Apple Music confirms that the complete album is available now.
Dead Poet Society Swing for the Fences
Monarch was produced by MUTEMATH frontman Paul Meany, whose credits include Twenty One Pilots and Pierce The Veil. Grammy-winning engineer Adam Hawkins—known for work with Turnstile and Yungblud—mixed the record.
The album was recorded at Valley View Studios and The Park in Los Angeles.
“We wanted to carve out our own piece of territory,” vocalist and guitarist Jack Underkofler said when the album was announced. “I just wanted to swing for the fences with this one.”
That ambition is immediately clear. Opening track “Hollywood on Fire” arrives with a massive bassline and an unsettling vocal cadence, while “Roach” incorporates a woozy, hip-hop-influenced groove. “Sinner Systems” combines a dark bounce with electronic textures, and “Cold” moves between ominous verses and one of the record’s biggest choruses.
“Miami for the Weekend” delivers a more direct blast of guitar-driven frustration, but even that song avoids predictable modern-rock formulas.
The Meaning BehindMonarch
The album examines identity, ambition, isolation and the pressure to perform for other people.
Drummer Will Goodroad described “Cold” as a response to the way people reshape themselves while competing for acceptance and social status—eventually losing contact with their genuine interests and beliefs.
That tension runs across Monarch: the desire to be recognized colliding with the fear that success may require sacrificing the person you were before anyone was watching.
The album follows 2021’s -!- and 2024’s FISSION, two releases that established Dead Poet Society as one of alternative rock’s most unpredictable rising bands.
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”
The band has also released visualizers for the album tracks that did not already have official videos, expanding the visual world introduced through “Cold,” “Roach” and “Sinner Systems.”
Dead Poet Society TakeMonarch
on the Road
Dead Poet Society will begin a U.S. co-headlining tour with Honey Revenge on October 23 in San Diego. The band will then join Muse for a European and United Kingdom arena run beginning November 12 before returning to the United States in December.
With Monarch, Dead Poet Society aren’t chasing one safe sound or repeating FISSION. They are testing how far modern rock can stretch without losing its weight—and delivering one of today’s most adventurous releases in the process.
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