Ateez tries more intense, rougher music with new EP

Ateez, a rising fourth-generation K-pop group, will return to the music scene Friday with a new EP titled “The World EP. 1: Movement.”

The band’s eighth EP marks a new beginning for its fictional storyline following the “Treasure” series about the eight members’ journey to discover a treasure and the “Fever” series about them experiencing the fever of youth before they team up as a group.

“The album depicts Ateez struggling to awaken people who live in the continuous cycle of life like a machine without feeling any particular emotions through its dance, music and art,” member Mingi said during a press showcase for “The World EP. 1: Movement,” held in Seoul on Thursday, one day before its release.

The lead track, “Guerrilla,” encourages people to “break the wall” and change the strictly regulated society where one cannot feel emotions, such as love, sadness or joy. The rest of the album’s tracks are “Propaganda,” “Sector 1,” “Cyberpunk,” “The Ring,” “WDIG (Where Do I Go)” and “New World.”

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The group showed off far more synchronized and intense group dance moves in addition to its trademark powerful and rough music during its first live performance of “Guerrilla.”

“It was a music style that we haven’t tried before. So I can say this album was a continuation of novelty. I hope fans will feel the excitement that we felt while preparing for the album,” Yeosang said.

Hongjoong, the band leader, said the group exerted lots of effort to make songs quite different from the usual dance-trap discography that Ateez is known for.

The tracks also have far more bald lyrics than those in previous albums. “Everything ranging from choreography to singing and to styling was a challenging experience for us,” he stressed.

The album is highly likely to be the band’s first million-seller, as it has already secured more than a record 1.1 million copies in preorders, according to the band’s agency, KQ Entertainment. The group’s previous personal preorder record was over 810,000 copies for its seventh EP, “ZERO: FEVER Part.3,” released in 2021.

San said he knows the weight of becoming a K-pop group with a million-selling album very well. “I think we should strive to make more effort to do better in the future in order not to lag behind. We’ll keep showing great performances.”

Ateez performed live in front of a combined 180,000 fans during its latest world tour that took it to big cities in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Unlike most K-pop idols, the three-year-old band is more popular among overseas fans than in South Korea.

“The disparity between overseas and domestic fandom is something we always think and talk about. But we don’t think we should do something new (to narrow the gap),” Hongjoong said. “Our goal is to play music that can satisfy fans, who trust and wait for us regardless of where they are,” he added.

The new EP is set to drop at 1 p.m. Friday.