De Staat return with a new weapon: “THE UNDERDOG”

After a two-year hiatus, Dutch art-rock provocateurs De Staat are back — and they’re pointing their latest single straight at the people at the top.

“THE UNDERDOG” is the fourth track to emerge from the band’s forthcoming seventh album, DE STAAT, due 18 September via V2 Records. Driven by warped organ, a huge bass-heavy finale and Torre Florim’s unusually exposed falsetto, it’s one of the record’s strangest and most confrontational moments yet.

And the timing feels deliberate. De Staat have spent years turning their attention to power, manipulation, misinformation and mass behaviour, but Florim says the current political climate has made those themes feel less like concepts and more like reality. The album’s title — the same name as the band itself — reflects that shift.

Where previous single “THE FIRE” watched the world burn from the sidelines, “THE UNDERDOG” turns its gaze upwards. It imagines the fed-up — across political and social divides — finding common ground in their frustration with those in power.

That makes DE STAAT sound less like a comeback than a reckoning. After 25 years of making music about power and control, the band have arrived at a moment where their own name suddenly feels more loaded than ever.

The band will bring that dystopian vision to the stage this autumn, with a run of European and UK dates alongside a series of ambitious conceptual performances in Amsterdam. With collaborators including audiovisual artist Boris Acket, visual artist Tarik Barri and director Floor Houwink ten Cate, De Staat are promising a live show that pushes their already theatrical approach even further.

The underdogs are back. And this time, they’re looking up.