No one captures existential dread quite like Protomartyr, and we currently find ourselves in an era rife with existential dread to be captured. Thankfully, the literate Detroit post-punk kings are returning this fall with Relatives In Descent, the follow-up to their intense 2015 LP The Agent Intellect, and today, they’ve shared lead single and album opener “A Private Understanding,” a five-minute slow-simmer that captures Protomartyr at their most unsettling and their most accessible. The music video, inspired by frontman Joe Casey’s recent trip to Ireland, stars 78-year-old Detroit standup comic Marty Smith as a barfly holding forth in a dimly-lit pub. Watch below.

Here’s Relatives In Descent’s album art:

Tracklist:

01 “A Private Understanding”
02 “Here Is The Thing”
03 “My Children”
04 “Caitriona”
05 “The Chuckler”
06 “Windsor Hum”
07 “Don’t Go To Anacita”
08 “Up The Tower”
09 “Night-Blooming Cereus”
10 “Male Plague”
11 “Corpses In Regalia”
12 “Half Sister”

Relatives In Descent is out 9/29 via Domino. Pre-order it here.