NCT Dream to drop new album before major team reconfiguration

NCT Dream, a teenage group under SM Entertainment’s NCT boy band platform, will release a new album, “Reload,” before the band’s major restructuring this month, SM said Tuesday.

NCT Dream is set to unveil the record on April 29. Mark, one of the original seven members, will not be part of the band’s subsequent album promotion after he graduated from the band last year.

Under the current system governing SM’s NCT boy bands, NCT Dream members graduate from the band at the age of 20.

But starting this month, SM will abolish the graduation rule for the teenage band, the management agency said, adding that all the six current NCT Dream members, and Mark, will move to another NCT subunit, NCT U.

An image of NCT Dream, provided by SM Entertainment (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

“Reload” is NCT Dream’s first music release since its 3rd EP, “We Boom,” dropped nine months ago. The new album carries five tracks.

NCT Dream debuted in 2016 as one of four boy bands launched under the platform NCT, which mixes and matches different members from a shifting pool of artists to form subunits. Other NCT subunits include NCT 127 and WayV.

NCT Dream made it on the Billboard roll of 21 Under 21, a list of 21 artists under the age 21 in 2018 and 2019 as the first Asian artists to be listed twice in a row.