Xdinary Heroes will release their ninth mini album, IMPULSE, on October 12th at 6 p.m. KST, beginning the Korean rock band’s first comeback as a five-member lineup following drummer and leader Gun-il’s departure in August.
JYP Entertainment opened the campaign at midnight KST on September 21st with a cinematic mood film built around “desire,” followed by a comeback poster and promotional schedule that will gradually reveal more of the record before release day.
The official JYP notice identifies IMPULSE as the band’s ninth mini album. Jungsu, Gaon, O.de, Jun Han and Jooyeon now make up Xdinary Heroes, making the release the first recorded look at how the group reorganizes its musical identity after losing the drummer who anchored its previous six-member lineup.
JYP has not yet released the IMPULSE track list, title track, complete credits or detailed production information. Those pieces will arrive progressively through track information, live samples and music-video teasers, leaving the current announcement centered on the album’s concept and the newly configured band behind it.
“Desire” Starts the IMPULSE Campaign
The first clue is conceptual rather than musical.
Xdinary Heroes’ mood film opens around the idea of desire, including the phrase “Desire. That’s what moves people.” Aju Press identifies the word as the central theme of the initial teaser campaign.
The title IMPULSE naturally sits beside that idea, but JYP has not published enough information to determine how the concept translates into lyrics, individual songs or the record’s sound. “Desire” is confirmed as part of the campaign; a specific musical interpretation is not.
The promotional schedule will gradually fill in those gaps. Track information is due before release, followed by additional visual material, live samples and music-video teasers as October 12th approaches.
For Xdinary Heroes, the live component carries particular weight. An instrument-playing band can use those samples to reveal arrangement choices, instrumental roles and the chemistry between members before listeners hear the finished studio recordings.
That becomes especially relevant on IMPULSE, where the first previews will also offer clues about how the band’s sound has been reorganized around five official members.
IMPULSE Begins a Five-Member Chapter
Gun-il left Xdinary Heroes on August 13th, ending his run as the group’s leader and drummer. JYP Entertainment announced that his exclusive contract had been terminated and that Xdinary Heroes would continue with Jungsu, Gaon, O.de, Jun Han and Jooyeon.
The lineup change immediately affected the band’s schedule. Planned Summer Sonic appearances in Tokyo and Osaka were canceled, followed by the three-night THE X-TOWN fan meeting scheduled for September 18th through 20th.
JYP said it was reorganizing the group’s direction and schedule while emphasizing that activities beyond the canceled fan meeting would continue. The August update now provides direct context for a comeback announced little more than a month later.
For an instrument-playing rock band, losing a drummer has musical consequences beyond reducing the number of official members. Drums establish pulse, dynamics and much of the physical framework around which bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals interact.
JYP has not announced how the drum role is being handled on the IMPULSE recordings or how future performances will be configured. A session musician, touring drummer, programming or another arrangement should not be assumed until the band or label identifies it.
That unanswered question gives the forthcoming live samples more significance than they would carry during a routine comeback. Listeners will not only be hearing new songs; they will be hearing the first evidence of how Xdinary Heroes functions after its most consequential lineup change.
A Rock Band Inside a K-Pop Rollout
Xdinary Heroes has always occupied an unusual position inside JYP Entertainment.
The members perform as an instrument-playing rock band, but the machinery surrounding their releases draws heavily from the K-pop promotional system: scheduled concept material, mood films, member imagery, comeback posters, live previews and precisely timed music-video teasers.
IMPULSE continues that model. JYP’s current notice board placed the mood film, scheduler and comeback poster together on September 21st, turning the beginning of the campaign into a coordinated release event rather than simply publishing an album date.
Previous Xdinary Heroes rollouts have used that infrastructure to highlight musicianship directly. During the campaign for 2025’s LXVE to DEATH, JYP released instrumental films and an instrumental live sampler before the album arrived.
That changes what familiar K-pop promotional tools can do. Instead of only revealing styling or visual concepts, a live sampler can put guitar parts, keyboard textures, bass movement and the relationship between instruments in front of listeners before release day.
The combination is one reason Xdinary Heroes fits imperfectly inside a simple K-pop-versus-rock divide. Its promotional system is recognizably K-pop, while much of the musical identity being promoted depends on songwriting, instruments and live-band performance.
Member Credits Remain Part of the Band’s Identity
Songwriting participation is another reason the eventual IMPULSE credits will matter.
Jungsu, Gaon, O.de, Jun Han and Jooyeon have repeatedly participated in writing and composition across the Xdinary Heroes catalog rather than functioning only as performers of externally supplied material. Aju Press notes that member involvement has remained part of the band’s creative identity heading into the new album.
The group’s April mini album DEAD AND provides the most recent point of comparison. JYP’s official album page lists seven tracks: “Voyager,” “X room,” “Helium Balloon,” “No Cool Kids Zone,” “Hurt So Good,” “Rise High Rise” and “KTM.”
Members participated in the creation of material across that release, continuing a pattern established on earlier Xdinary Heroes records.
That makes the unreleased IMPULSE credit sheet more than administrative information. It will show whether the five current members continue taking substantial roles in writing and composition after the lineup change and which outside collaborators are involved in shaping the new material.
No complete credits have been released yet, so the extent of member participation on IMPULSE remains unknown.
Once JYP publishes them, those names will provide one of the first concrete ways to compare the creative structure of the five-member Xdinary Heroes with the records made before Gun-il’s departure.
DEAD AND Set Up a Fast Return
IMPULSE arrives less than six months after Xdinary Heroes released DEAD AND on April 17th.
The album was the group’s first mini album of 2026 and followed 2025’s LXVE to DEATH. The official discography also shows the March 25th release of “X room,” which arrived ahead of DEAD AND.
JYP described “Voyager,” the album’s title track, around strong synth riffs, powerful drums, rushing guitar and a more emotional melodic line. Those details make the eventual sound of IMPULSE particularly worth comparing once reliable audio previews arrive.
Between the two mini albums, the band’s personnel changed substantially.
The turnaround therefore combines two different kinds of momentum. Xdinary Heroes is maintaining a relatively fast recording schedule while simultaneously reorganizing the lineup responsible for performing that material.
JYP has not identified whether IMPULSE will continue the sonic direction of DEAD AND, move toward another style or connect conceptually with the previous release. For now, “desire” and the album title remain the only official clues about the new project’s thematic direction.
Live Performance Is the Next Test
Xdinary Heroes built much of its reputation around translating studio material into full-band performances.
The Beautiful Mind world tour concluded in August 2025 after 18 performances across 14 regions, including U.S. stops in Brooklyn, Washington, Atlanta, Irving, Los Angeles and San Jose. JYP’s tour recap emphasized the group’s live-band performance as a central part of those concerts.
That history makes the post-Gun-il live setup another unresolved part of the IMPULSE cycle.
Before August’s lineup change, each member occupied an identifiable place inside the band’s instrumental framework. Gun-il’s departure removes the musician who had been physically responsible for the drum parts during the group’s previous performances.
Xdinary Heroes remains officially a five-member band, but that does not establish exactly how many musicians will appear onstage during future concerts or who will handle percussion. JYP has not yet announced those details.
The distinction matters. A five-member official lineup does not necessarily require every live arrangement to be performed by exactly five people, and the band could adopt any number of approaches without changing its membership.
That is why the first IMPULSE live material should be more revealing than an ordinary promotional sampler. It can show how the new songs are arranged and provide the first evidence of how Xdinary Heroes intends to preserve its full-band performance identity after losing its original drummer.
IMPULSE Has More to Establish Than a Comeback
On paper, the September 21st announcement follows a recognizable JYP comeback structure.
There is an album title, an October 12th release date, a mood film, a concept word and a scheduler that will gradually reveal more music and imagery. Xdinary Heroes has worked within versions of that promotional system throughout its career.
The circumstances underneath it are different.
IMPULSE is the first release with Jungsu, Gaon, O.de, Jun Han and Jooyeon as the complete official lineup. It follows a month in which planned appearances were canceled and JYP publicly reorganized the band’s activities.
At the same time, the qualities that have separated Xdinary Heroes from a conventional idol group remain central: members play instruments, have established histories of writing and composition, and have built a substantial part of the group’s reputation through live-band performance.
The next stages of the rollout should make those details less abstract. Track information will establish the songs and their credits. Live samples can reveal how the new configuration is arranged. Music-video teasers will identify the sound and visual direction JYP intends to place at the center of the comeback.
For now, “desire” is the campaign’s first word.
By October 12th, IMPULSE will have to answer the more musical question: what does Xdinary Heroes sound like when the machinery of a K-pop comeback is introducing a newly configured rock band?