Dreamcatcher’s Apocalypse Is Nigh As First Details Of Comeback Surface

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

Dreamcatcher is now officially on the comeback trail to an April 2022 release of their second full album, as excitement begins building about a new story and music.

Note: This article was written before SuA’s COVID-19 diagnosis. All other members are negative for COVID at this time and activities will be canceled for this week. As always, health and safety are most important, and like many fans, I hope SuA rests well, has a full recovery, and that the group can have safe upcoming promotions. The original article below follows.

After weeks of speculation and anticipation, Dreamcatcher has finally arrived on the comeback trail, and it’s one that from our first visual look, appears to be an apocalyptic one - battered and in a bleak state needing saving. Conversation and speculation gave way to mystery code excitement and comeback scheduler hype, and fans celebrated both the pending official release date and the birthday of Chinese member Handong on live stream. Without further ado, let’s jump straight into all the news of this busy Dreamcatcher week!

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SuA made her usual appearance on SBS Wendy’s Young Street and this week’s topic was messages that you hate responding to the most. The choices ranged from a dull “wow” reaction to a couple of isolated letters in hangul to those who only reach out when they need something. SuA picked the second choice, citing that her older brother constantly utilizes short letter exchanges to mean “Yes” or with short laughter, so she’s not keen on having text conversations with her. Of course, we know from past variety appearances that SuA prefers video messages and expressions of affection, especially towards her fellow members so this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Either way, it was another fun episode with SuA, Wendy and Taehyun, especially when Wendy had to do a freestyle rap as a penalty, much to both SuA and Taehyun’s delight.

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We also can’t let this past week’s news go by without acknowledging that Handong was able to celebrate with fans on both YouTube and Weibo this past Saturday. Opting this year not to go with a brand new activity, such as last year’s cotton candy making fun time, Handong instead chose a nice chill conversation with fans, surrounded by multiple birthday cakes and communication in both Korean and Chinese. We learned a bit about Handong during this live stream, such as who is most comfortable in Chinese besides Yoohyeon (it’s Dami), what presents she received from the other members (a nice floral skirt, some lipstick, and a knitted hat, among other things), and that she’s still trying to learn the drums (presumably from Rolling Quartz’s Yeongeun. Not surprisingly we heard about how social Handong is with other idols, such as LOONA’s Vivi, and that she managed to visit the fan-funded birthday cafes and celebrations.

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Regarding the album, Handong was of course coy about what’s to come, stating that the choreography is tiring (but still not harder than hard-charging, fast-paced debut song “Chase Me”), that she might have given out an inadvertent spoiler at one of the fan cafe locations (some speculating that a finger gun gesture might have spoiler the concept a bit), and that she’s extremely excited to have new music coming soon. With this being Handong’s first full album, as she was away in China for “Dystopia: The Tree of Language”, it’ll be great to have her vocal talent on display with the space of a full album to do so. We’re definitely as excited as Handong is!

That excitement was like a dam breaking when Thursday at midnight KST show the Mystery Code for Dreamcatcher’s 2nd full album get posted on the group’s official Instagram. As usual, the posting of the code set off a firestorm of fans looking to try to figure out any information to be gleaned from it, and after a few hours of work, here were some of the things that were observed.

• The setting appeared to be a broken, ruined city, eliciting a very post-apocalyptic sci-fi vibe.
• An air quality monitor appeared to be placed on the side of a structure, (the words “Air Monitor” seem to be in the upper left) with relevant values that seemed to point to a planet’s atmosphere ruined by an unspecified cause.
• Morse Code was found on the ruined stone support on one of the images, with the outcome being “321124433433”. Putting this through a tap/knock cipher reveals the word “Maison”, meaning home or house in French.
• The upper right hand corner of the air monitor readout appeared to show the release date of the album, 2022/04/12 at 6:00pm KST

Mystery codes have always been fun for many reasons, not the least of which is A)the potential concept and B)the fun little puzzles to figure out what is typically the album release date and the title track name. They’ve been a thing since Fly High, and with a new storyline beginning, the presence of a new mystery code was even more intriguing.

Fans didn’t have to wait long for their speculations to get a little more light shed upon them because the comeback scheduler was posted the next day, revealing the album title to be “Apocalypse: Save Us”. While we have yet to see the story spoiler for what will likely be a set of releases that will tell it, this combined with the bleak landscape and somewhat surrounded globe seem to point to a post-apocalyptic future where things have not turned out so great for the earth. Of interest, besides the music of course, is the message Dreamcatcher plans on sending. Last time, it was about combatting online and offline hatred through words. This time, it seems that Dreamcatcher’s characters will be starting behind the eight ball trying to save a world that is already seemingly lost. We’re sure to find out in a few weeks when the album finally drops in early April.

One clue we may have gotten came in the form of an accompanying announcement from Dreamcatcher Company and frequent partner MyMusicTaste, who have said they are holding a Mini Concert to celebrate the release of the album on April 12th at 7:30pm KST. The concert is ticketed with a nominal cost for the live stream or, if you’re so inclined the live stream plus a photocard set and ticket to commemorate the event. All the info is on the MyMusicTaste project page, along with a curious passage about what exactly is happening in Dreamcatcher’s new world-building plot:

The end of times have come upon us
With chaos and carnage in the dusk
Seven lead the revelation,
Finding home in music for salvation

Music has long since been seen as a medium for emotional expression, a means of being able to communicate feelings and ideas through vocals, notes, and tones. Will Dreamcatcher’s musical performance be the light in the apocalyptic darkness that “saves” the world, like the title implies? We don’t know for sure, but everything about the setting so far has had fans buzzing that Dreamcatcher has once again asserted itself as the masters of the world-building dark concept with a hybrid rock/pop sound to back it.

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We’ll likely find out more about the story, the music, and just about everything else in the group’s accompanying variety and interview appearances, the first couple of which we found out about after the comeback trail was officially started. Weekly Idol was confirmed to have Dreamcatcher on, with a preview broadcast to be held on the 28th of March (though now potentially pushed back due to recent news). And Stacy Nam, Producer and Digital Host for iHeartRadio and who has done plenty of high quality K-Pop idol interviews in the past, confirmed on her Twitter that she’ll be talking to Dreamcatcher, and asked to field some questions from fans about the group. Seeing Dreamcatcher’s stock rise with both a channel/network that considers them a standard staple for comebacks and with a new appearance that shows how far their clout has come is wonderful for the group, and is a great way to kick off pre-comeback activities.

We have plenty to look forward to from the group as they have their feet firmly planted on the road to comeback, and I’ll be here to cover everything that will be revealed in the coming week and beyond. Be sure to clap, subscribe, and signal boost this content if you like what you’re reading, and I’ll see you here in this space at this time next week!