REVIEW: Dead Poet Society - Monarch
Consistently working outside of the status quo to fuse raw emotions with enthralling melodies, DEAD POET SOCIETY have established themselves as artists who test the boundaries between genres for distinctive, sonically intricate projects, using their personal experiences as the foundation to their musical story-telling that resonates on a deeper level with their listeners. They’ve once again adopted this method to create their third album Monarch, an intense project that borders on sensuous in its vocal and instrumental deliveries, whilst beneath the surface menacing rage plays its part in the fractious lyrics and rhythms.
Where the Massachusetts four-piece have focused on the moment in time to drive their music, Monarch was instead borne from personal heartbreak and betrayal, the band rallying together to ask themselves what feelings they shared in the moment and beyond. The collective answer - resentment. This shared feeling soon transformed from a cathartic outpouring to a stacked 12-track record that rips away the image people have to reveal the true DEAD POET SOCIETY, in their anger, their truth, and their unapologetic selves.
Each track tells a different story, with some joining together to create a complete picture. They focus on emotion over technical prowess to bring gut-punching honesty of everything they’ve been through as a band and as individuals, from heartbreak to addiction, loss, and betrayal. While feeling may be their core element, their instrumental work and production cannot be ignored, particularly with the likes of Paul Meaney (TWENTY ONE PILOTS, PIERCE THE VEIL) and Adam Hawkins (TURNSTILE, MKG) at the helm of producing and mixing. Taking what the band gave them and moulding their sound into something more dangerous and more aligned with how they feel, Monarch is DEAD POET SOCIETY at their most realised and free.
Haunting falsetto notes reach us from beyond a fuzzed veil on opener Hollywood On Fire, before descending into a pulverising bass and drum beat from Dylan Brenner and Will Goodroad respectively, vocalist and guitarist Jack Underkofler layering unsettling howls over soul-baring notes as Jack Collins’ guitar rings in the distance - it’s an immediate demonstration of the danger they invoke in their sound as they stretch and shape to a form more fitting. A metronome beat on Roach is hijacked by distorted guitar and bass, the vocals dropping down an octave and racing at an unstoppable cadence as if they’re mid-fight and they’re going to get the last word in no matter what, the rhythms teetering on the edge of crashing into a breakdown but never quite giving in to us. Disarming riffs and hooks war against the drums as Die If You Don’t opens, creating a sonically fascinating melody that feels like it shouldn’t match but instead fuses into something disconcerting and delicious.
Sinner Systems goes further into the darkness with foreboding riffs and changing beats under borderline sinister and vengeful lyrics that promise to give back the negative energy tenfold to whoever wronged or used them, creating a sound that THORNHILL fans will deeply enjoy. Lost sees the band embrace vulnerability in an utterly euphoric, cinematic track that falls away to an almost tranquil quiet with heart-wrenching feeling before it crests like a tidal wave of dramatic drums and bass and stirring guitar riffs. Cold continues in the same vein of cinematic sounds, Underkofler’s voice rocketing up to spine-tingling notes as he faces the brutal self-awareness of becoming desensitized and facing the consequences of someone reciprocating the coldness against a backdrop of blistering drums and meaty guitar and bass.
Psalm 136 drops into a post-hardcore mix as they question their beliefs and upbringings, a drum roll building into a crescendo of rising screams and strained riffs as they question the mercy promised by God in the psalm and call out “can you hear me now?”. Rumbly bass akin to DON BROCO pulls us into Dead On The Inside and its addictive rhythms, contradictory and haunting minor notes swaying us from the expected, pulling back slightly for a slowed pace that feels like QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE’s more unearthly songs, and then racing forward for a track that feels impossible not to move to. Miami For The Weekend plays by no one’s rules and feels entirely like the band having fun with rhythms, the track zipping between relentless alt-rock to post-hardcore, to rapid-fire punk-rock as they declare “I think I love you, I really do” in a heady intoxication for someone.
Get Hot picks us up and hauls us along for a rocketing beat as Goodroad attacks his kit in a frenzy and Collins and Brenner slide up and down the scales in tandem with each others riffs, Underkofler daring the listener to watch them show their mettle, a defiant smirk practically audible in the delivery. The Park starts on an eerie tone before layered cries punch through, dropping away to a disquieting pace and a steady beat that threatens to take over, the track feeling like TWENTY ONE PILOTS and early ROYAL BLOOD melded their more menacing aspects together into something that would live comfortably in a horror game. Solemn guitar notes ring out on closer The Art Of Suffering as Underkofler laments “I just do what my demons tell me”, the instruments both adding weight to an already heavy emotion and lifting us into an out-of-body experience, looking down on this jagged connection between DEAD POET SOCIETY’s feelings and ours.
Score: 10/10
Monarch will be released on Friday 2nd October via Spinefarm.
Words: Julia Stark
Photos: Darren Craig
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