ENHYPEN‘s series of albums have detailed the septet’s road to becoming an arena-filling boy band with four entries on the Billboard 200 after just two-and-a-half years together. The results speak to the connection the K-pop stars have made with fans, inspiring a magical musical experience for their latest release.
Instead of taking direct inspiration from their professional and personal lives, the K-pop stars to watch used inspiration from meeting their fans—affectionately known as ENGENEs—during their Manifesto World Tour to deliver an elevated emotional experience for DARK BLOOD, which entered World Albums at No. 14 last week and is expected to make a major splash on the Billboard 200 next week after the physical album dropped last Friday, June 2.
“While our previous albums were largely influenced by our personal experiences, DARK BLOOD takes our experience and emotions of having met our fans in person through our tour a step further by incorporating fantasy-like elements to enhance the enjoyment of ENGENEs and listeners alike,” explains group leader Jungwon.
The six-song EP takes inspiration from ENHYPEN’s fantasy novel/webtoon series DARK MOON : THE BLOOD ALTAR, which stars vampire characters inspired by the seven group members. Described in a press release as “a new roadmap for K-pop,” DARK BLOOD rolls ENHYPEN’s growing creative world and IP into its musical, visual and dance world.
“It’s truly a delight to see ENGENEs fully immersed in DARK MOON : THE BLOOD ALTAR and genuinely enjoying the story,” Jake reflects. “With many connections between the webtoon and our album, paying attention to these aspects will definitely make the listening experience more fun.”
Sunoo adds, “Seeing characters based on ourselves was really cool, and it felt like we’re the actual characters in the webtoon. This kind of experience doesn’t come around often, so it’s been a fun and refreshing opportunity for us to connect it to our album and bring something new.”
As new of an experience DARK BLOOD marks for ENHYPEN’s career, the band is also taking the time to remember where they began.
To celebrate the EP’s release, ENHYPEN held a “special showcase” concert for fans in Seoul, where they performed “Into the I-Land,” the theme song of the boy band competition show I-Land that ultimately created the group. Alongside their new single “Bite Me,” plus tracks “Bills” and “Karma,” the performance acted as a reminder that ENHYPEN is as thankful for the ENGENEs with them from the start as those with them today.
“It was a very special performance that served as a reminder for all of us to stay grounded and never forget where we all started,” Ni-ki says before Sunghoon adds, “We knew how much our ENGENEs wanted to see this song performed live, so we especially prepared it just for them; kind of like our way of saying ‘thank you.’”
ENHYPEN will continue to pay it back to fans when they head out on their upcoming FATE World Tour, kicking off next month in Seoul before landing Stateside in October. In the meantime, the guys tell Billboard that they’re hard at work prepping their biggest show yet while also keeping an eye on which songs fans are using across their accounts.”
“I’m on social channels pretty often so I really enjoy seeing how our music is received by the wider audience as well as our fans,” Jake says. “It’s fun and rewarding to watch our fans take part in our challenges or use our music to create their own content.”
Ni-ki is sure to mention that “We are set to begin our second world tour ‘FATE’ this coming July with shows in Seoul and we will be continuing to Japan to host dome concerts an’s full d our U.S. leg includes a stadium venue, so we’re very much looking forward to meeting a bigger number of ENGENEs in one place this time. We’ll be giving it our all to prepare, so please look forward to it!”
Read on for ENHYPEN’s full track-by-track breakdown of DARK MOON including studio stories, song reflections and more.
