Equal Vision Records, Dine Alone Records and The Flatliners are excited to announce the Friday, May 8th release of ‘Cold World’, the longstanding, Juno-nominated Canadian punk quartet’s brand new studio album. While 2022’s ‘New Ruin’ was preoccupied with the inherited damages of the last generation, ‘Cold World’ sees that legacy for what it is — a ghost, a fading memory. If ‘New Ruin’ was about the rage of realization, now we’re damned with the aftermath of clarity. Welcome to the future.
Leading the collection is the single ‘Good, You?’, a snotty, tongue-in-cheek offering that successfully skewers the topic of toxic masculinity and the irrational fear we all seem to share of talking about our feelings. Watch the music video for “Good, You?” directed by Jeff Powers on YouTube, and stream the track on all platforms.
The band had the following to share about the video: “We wanted to pay homage to the greatest era of music videos we have ever known — the one we grew up in. Our aim was to make a ‘90s-style video, portraying the album artwork in all its glory; to bring things back to a time where you could suspend disbelief and just let your eyes and ears devour those next three minutes. With the help of our amazing cast and crew, we achieved just that. A piece of nowstalgia that feels like it has a strong foot in the past, and another firmly planted in the present.”
Maybe the greatest resistance that any artist can offer today is the radical act of stability — the same four people, friends since they were kids, playing music together because they have been compelled to for nearly their entire lives, 24 years and counting.
‘Cold World’, the brand new studio album from Canadian punk veterans The Flatliners, is the sound of a band free to make what they want with the people they want to make it with, to try to carve out some space to demonstrate a different way of doing things — a space where bands share credit equally, where friends grow and work together over decades, a space where stability is the reward for sticking to your vision.
That vision has evolved into a consistent confidence that gives The Flatliners the freedom to experiment with the edges of their sound while grounded by each other, locking out the decay of the world outside. The band fought through the fire of their last record only to find a landscape of debasement and erasure, and an increasingly cold world for all of us to live in.
The textures of ‘Cold World’ itself are anything but comfortable and familiar. The band’s airtight foundation of bassist Jon Darbey and drummer Paul Ramirez continues to drive with a learned, casual urgency on rippers like ‘Inner Peace’ and ‘Burn’, while Chris Cresswell and Scott Brigham deploy the controlled chaos of their shredding two-guitar attack, enveloping the listener on songs like ‘Pulpit’ and ‘Whyte Light’. As the album ends, we may be drifting out into darkness. But if we’re lucky, we can choose who we drift with.
The Flatliners will be making the following appearances in 2026. Dates below with more to be announced soon.
‘Cold World’ tracklist:
01. Stolen Valour
02. Good, You?
03. Inner Peace
04. And They’re Off
05. Only Darkness
06. Whyte Light
07. Into Annihilation
08. Pulpit
09. Turning Signal Rhythm
10. Gush
11. Burn
12. United In Spite
Upcoming tour dates:
February 20th — Broom Factory — Kingston, ON
February 21st — Bond Street Event Centre — Oshawa, ON
February 26th — Paddy’s Underground — Tillonsburg, ON
February 27th — Sonic Hall — Guelph, ON
February 28th — Warehouse Concert Hall — St. Catharines, ON
March 20th — Park Theatre — Winnipeg, MB
May 2nd — Sing Us Home Festival — Philadelphia, PA
May 5th — The Pearl — Washington, DC
May 6th — The Bunker — Virginia Beach, VA
May 8th — Meadows — Brooklyn, NY
May 9th — The Middle East — Cambridge, MA
May 28th — Goldfield — Sacramento, CA
May 29th — Rickshaw Stop — San Francisco, CA
May 30th — The Ritz — San Jose, CA
May 31st — Teragram Ballroom — Los Angeles, CA
June 19th — Bahnhof Paulo — Hamburg, DE
June 20th — Hole 44 — Berlin, DE
June 21st — Farewell Youth Fest — Dresden, DE
June 23rd — Arena — Vienna, AT
June 24th — Strom — Munich, DE
June 25th — Gebaude 9 — Cologne, DE
June 26th — Jera On Air — Ysselsteyn, NL
June 27th — Vainstream — Munster, De
June 28th — Mighty Sounds Festival — Tabor, CZ
July 2nd — FestiVoix — Trois Rivières, QC