Equal Vision Records, Dine Alone Records, and The Flatliners are pleased to present ‘Inner Peace’, the latest single to be lifted from the Friday, May 8th release of ‘Cold World,’ the longstanding, Juno-nominated Canadian punk quartet’s brand new studio album. Taking aim at the sometimes snake-oily and always exhausting parallels between modern wellness and religious indoctrination, ‘Inner Peace’ reveals that there’s perspective in the imperfect. There’s authenticity in the audacious. It’s an unrelenting beast, this quest for inner peace.
While 2022’s ‘New Ruin’ was preoccupied with the inherited damages of the last generation, the forthcoming ‘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.
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.
Upcoming tour dates:
March 20th — Park Theatre — Winnipeg, Manitoba
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
August 18th — Rescue Rooms — Nottingham, UK
August 19th — Slay Glasgow — Glasgow, UK
August 21st — The Bread Shed — Manchester, UK
August 22nd — The Garage — London, UK
August 23rd — The Fleece — Bristol, UK
August 28th — Louis’ Pub — Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
August 29th — Pawn Shop Live — South Edmonton Common, Alberta
August 30th — The Arrowhead — Calgary, Alberta
September 1st — The Northern Bar & Stage — Fernie, British Columbia
September 4th — Harbour Convention Centre — Vancouver, British Columbia
September 5th — Kelowna Event Centre — Kelowna, British Columbia