On the topic of Ateez.
The metamorphosis of this group literally happened before my eyes. Before pandemic they were scheduled to tour the US in 2020, and I got the tickets to their concert.
Back then they were very colorful and happy group with several good ballads. What I liked about them was that their songs were nice and their vocals were very good (that Jongho guy can really sing).
Between 2020 and 2022, they released more good songs and really improved as performers.
In 2022 they honored the tickets and finally were able to tour the US. The Fellowship : Beginning of the End was the name of that tour. Which is ironic but more about it later.
The show was legit amazing. Those guys could really sing and their English was great. They were funny, cute , interacted with the audience well, were super engaged, and hungry to please the crowd.
I didn't see much of the symbols or anything of that sort during the show.
At that time I could even picture them replacing Bt$ because objectively speaking those guys are more vocally advanced and better than OT7.
Well, fast-forward to the end of their US tour which was a tremendous success for them, and apparently they visited S0ny studio in LA.
And that's when I think was the turning point for them. They releazed a vey out-of-character song full of satanic symbols, with Hongjoong's eye covered with eye patch, etc. The song is so bad musically too...
Later that year 2022 they announced another US/world tour in the late fall, and of course I bought a ticket for my city since I enjoyed the previous show.
Between spring and fall they have embraced a new concept- brand new world, dark , gorilla-godzilla, basically bunch of crappy songs full of dark symbolism and poor quality music.
I went to the second show- and let me tell you, the vibe was really bad and dark. $onghwa and other members constantly did devil's horns with their hands, so much symbolism in the images displayed on the screens, etc. The show was just not good, and left bad aftertaste.
After this I kinda lost interest in them, and I couldn't even listen to their last mini-album. I did see the MV, and it was full of more symbols and there was a goat in it (of course, there was).
This band has fully succumbed to darkness, and they are gonners, which is sad, because those guys are actually really talented.
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