"Xdinary Heroes, DEAD AND: the last record by the six-piece"
"The JYP band's eighth mini album casts itself as a restart. Five months later it reads as the final document of a lineup that no longer exists."
Xdinary Heroes have always been an odd fit for the idol system that produced them. They are a six-piece band (five now) assembled by Studio J, a JYP Entertainment sub-label, and since their December 2021 debut single "Happy Death Day" they have pitched themselves as players first and performers second. DEAD AND, the eighth mini album, released on April 17, 2026, is the most complete case they have made for that reading. It is also, as things turned out, the last record by the full original lineup.
A seven-track argument
The album runs seven songs: "Voyager," the pre-released "X room," "Helium Balloon," "No Cool Kids Zone," "Hurt So Good," "Rise High Rise" and "KTM." The detail that matters most sits in the credits. All six members are credited on every song, which is unusual even for a band whose whole pitch is self-authorship, and it shapes how the record holds together.
It does not hold together by sound. The pre-release highlight sampler promised a spread running from sharp, powerful metal to vintage ballad and punk rock, and the band leaned into it: guitarist Jun Han described the album as a work woven from the intersections of different genres. Korean press has given the group the nickname "melting pot of genres", and DEAD AND treats that label as a mandate rather than a warning.
What holds it together is a stance. The titles alone sketch a mood swing: a balloon that floats off, a zone with no cool kids, a pain that feels good, a tower that keeps climbing. Gunil called it an album packed with songs the members cherish, and Gaon said it shows its value fully only when performed live on stage. That second remark is the most useful thing anyone said about the record. These are songs built for a room, not for a playlist.
"Voyager" as thesis
The title track carries the weight. Reports describe an intense synth riff, powerful drums and a whirlwind guitar sound, with the members involved in writing and composing it. The lyric borrows the image of the Voyager 1 probe, still travelling after leaving Earth, as a picture of carrying on past a point of no return. It is a burnout song that refuses to end in burnout.
A burnout song that refuses to end in burnout.
At the fan showcase on release night, the band said they had approached the album with a "starting again" mindset, and the setlist bore that out. They opened with "Hurt So Good," gave "X room" its first stage, ran through "ICU" and "Beautiful Life," and closed the new material with the first live "Voyager." That sequencing tells you how the band hears its own catalogue: the new songs slot beside the old ones without a seam.
The record after the fact
Context has changed how DEAD AND reads. In August, after a leaked recording and allegations about his remarks on fans, JYP ended drummer and leader Gunil's contract by mutual agreement. He apologised but said his comments targeted people he considered harassers. Summer Sonic appearances in Tokyo and Osaka were cancelled, and the band continues as a five-piece.
This review is not the place to weigh that dispute. What it changes, musically, is the meaning of a record that was explicitly about collective authorship. Six names on every song was the point. A band that sells itself on playing its own instruments loses more than a face when the drummer goes.
Verdict
DEAD AND is a band record in the full sense: written together, sequenced for the stage, and stubborn about not choosing one genre lane. Its weakness is the same as its strength. Without a single sonic identity, it depends on the live show to tie it up, and the band said as much. Its spring touring, including a special live run across Europe and the UK, suited that design.
The five-member Xdinary Heroes return with the mini album IMPULSE on October 12. That record will answer the question DEAD AND now leaves open: whether "starting again" was a slogan or a plan.
- Artist: Xdinary Heroes
- Release: DEAD AND (8th mini album), Studio J / JYP Entertainment, April 17, 2026
- Key tracks: "Voyager," "X room," "Hurt So Good"