Album Review: ChRocktikal's Sophomore Offering Brings Fun, Focused Rock To Fans

A new band, especially one that's decidedly on the indie scene like ChRocktikal, has to work to establish its style and image to fans. While you can get an idea from the kind of band you're going to get from teasers or imagery and the like, you don't really know what they're capable of til you hear them play.

This wasn't any different for ChRocktikal. Even though we knew it was going to be a rock-style band and that there was one known quantity, Dreamcatcher member and Main Vocalist Siyeon, things were, of course, a bit more complicated when you add instruments and three members in Junyoung, Wonseok, and Gwanwoo, who you had to go looking around on the internet to find prior work for.

This might have also been why the band's debut album was a Full album, featuring a ton of tracks and even one that was LP-exclusive. Like most fans, I was delighted to hear so much music all at once, but I couldn't help wonder if this sort of shotgun approach was ChRocktikal's way of proving they were versatile - able to do metal, hard rock, pop rock, and ballad in equal measure. But the lack of a focused genre left me curious about what they'd specialize in.

That question was answered by ChRocktikal's second album release and 1st mini offering, "Bloom & Gloom". True to the clever play on words that reversed the wholly negative connotation of "Doom & Gloom", Siyeon, Wonseok, Junyoung, and Gwanwoo provided both bright rock and heavier guitar riffs and vocals, the result being that we got a more specific set of tracks, genre-wise. Here's what I thought about the vocal tracks on the album!

Green

Obviously I'm saving title track "REQUIEM" for last, but that's not going to stop me from saying that if that track is the "anime OP" of the album, then "Green" is the "anime ED" theme for sure. A slower, more relaxing pace set by Gwanwoo's drums and overlaid by a slow, meandering guitar and bass line from Wonseok and Junyoung allows Siyeon to float over the top with an emotional rock ballad-style rendition that reflects on the beauty of spending time with someone close to you during and after the rain falls, when you can smell the fresh green of nature in the air even in the city. It's perfect anime ending theme fodder and I could visualize the credits appearing and disappearing slowly as I listened.

WTH

I'd call this the "bridge" track between the "Bloom" and "Gloom" themes of the album - it's a high-energy, quick-paced track but it has a distinct edge to it, an in-your-face mentality that reminds me of the way that debut album track "KALish" was presented. The interesting thing about this track, besides the free use of profanity reminiscent of lots of hard-charging punk-ish rock music like this, is that it's pretty much all in English. We know that the group has been heavily practicing and keeping up with their English language skill, especially as they're slated to head off to a new Europe tour where they'll be speaking it any a few other languages along the way, but this track seems fortuitously timed to make small concert venues rock and headbang along. After eight years of mostly squeaky-clean idol-style Dreamcatcher tracks, it was a real treat hearing Siyeon drop an f-bomb along with insightful, direct lines such as "I messed this shit up". And of course, the guitar solo from Wonseok in this track is the perfect instrumental energy interlude that is going to be great to hear live.

Guilty

Diving straight into the Gloom portion of the track is Guilty", which seems to twist the light-hearted and pure love and affection of "Green" into overwhelming obsession with a murderous edge. Did someone use the One Wish Willow out there or something? Either way, there's just a little tinge of regret which seems to point towards the title of the track, but that isn't enough to overcome the horror-ish undertone of the instrumentation and the lyrics. Dare I say it's quite a bit "Dreamcatcher-esque" and reminds me of 2021's summer track "BEcause", which was also thematically based on a horror movie? I'd say yes. The overall song seems a bit too slow and low-toned at times, but maybe that's the point of such a heavy entry.

¡Corre!

This turned heads during the reveal of the track list because the title was Spanish, the word meaning "run" or "hurry", and it caps off the album with a unique guitar shift along with a light touch from Siyeon and what I believe are Wonseok's vocals. Adding the Spanish to the English and expected Korean, this is a triple-language track, which, despite my misgivings about how it seems to meander between styles, is still pretty impressive. If "Guilty" was the implication of violence, then "¡Corre!" is the straight-up statement that it's happening to the victim the group is singing to - kind of how a horror movie stops messing around about who the villain is and commences with the chase down of the unfortunate victim.

"REQUIEM" (Title Track)

Don't get me wrong - I did like the banger instrumentation and the metal-style singing of debut album title track "PEACE", but sometimes I just want a feel-good, high-energy rock track that I know hypes me up for what's to come, whether that is for a TV show, performance, or other main event. That's what "REQUIEM" is - and you could count the trope-y anime opening shots in the beats of the song. Heroes looking off into the distance as the wind blows around them? Quick cuts of important characters? High-energy running with your arms out? This song could match any of those shots and then some, and I'm all about that mood lately, especially in a world of challenges and difficulties.

You might think that the up-tempo and happy singing and smiling ChRocktikal is doing seems like a purposeful contrast to the literal definition of requiem as a song or dirge you compose to honor the dead, and the black-clad performance outfits on an idyllic beach setting might lend itself to that opposing juxtaposition. But I actually think that looking at the lyrics and connecting them to the meaning of the title, there's a bit more similarity than you might think. ChRocktikal seems to be honoring fleeting memories and moments - the kinds of things that don't seem to last forever but that are still treasured.

Perhaps it's appropriate that this song and album are out in the later part of the summer in South Korea, where people there and elsewhere might create such ephemeral time together in the form of summer romances, get-togethers against the backdrop of warm weather that brings with it outdoor festivals and events, and other such similar, possibly short-lived experiences. You carry those feelings with you and honor them as the seasons turn, even though they're long past. It's big "carpe diem" energy, and that's what the video's shots of the band happily running around the beach and filming it with a small camera seem to try to hold in our heads, and why dressing in mourning colors isn't really mourning at all, but remembering.

Regardless, this was a more-than-worthy title track, one that will make it on my playlist for many repeats and loops, and seems to encapsulate the many joyful, small moments that Siyeon, Wonseok, Junyoung, and Gwanwoo appear to be having participating in this project. There are worse ways to feel about something (or someone) that isn't around anymore, so I'll take frolicking on the beach, jamming out with great music, and laughing at the end of it all any day. It's this kind of subtle nuance that makes ChRocktikal's focus on the light and the heavy of rock a solid second entry in what will hopefully be a long discography to come.