With The Intoxicating 'Fear,' K-pop Hitmakers Seventeen Continue To Evolve

Right after making pulses race with their late-summer banger "HIT" last month, Seventeen are back with "Fear," a simmering single that ups the dramatic ante — both sonically and lyrically. The fashionable release signals the official arrival of what their fans affectionately call "Darkteen," a concept that finds the 13-member Korean sort playing around with more mature themes, moodier visuals, and diversifying their signature bright, effusive sound with a distorted bass line, haunting falsettos, and also a hard-hitting hook.


Produced by member Woozi and the group's frequent collaborator, Bumzu, "Fear" is a track that also keeps you guessing with subtle flourishes — like the startling use of silence on the next verse; Jeonghan's airy whispers are a contrast to the sudden emptiness of the production. For a solitary, it's although another developments for Seventeen — a transition into the dark intensity of the unknown. (Though, admirers of the group's playful "Freshteen" sound can listen to "Snap Shoot," a lively B-side off their latest album, An Ode, out right now)


According to the official description of the song on YouTube, the single "explores fear as an emotion they face while in their creative process. Because the members search within for insight, the agony they endure help them develop one step further as artists." The lyrics speak of the poisonous feeling of fear. Rapper Wonwoo kicks off the song with a blistering statement: "I'm poison." The striking choreography finds the members drinking drinking from a chalice made from their hands. Because the song goes on, the poison consumes them.


As a visual, "Fear" is identically intoxicating. Prosperous hues and also a number of textures give the video a dark, cinematic feel. The mood matches the intensity of the song, as each member exists in their own dramatic setting, alone and detached from the others. They only come with each other for the mesmerizing efficiency sequences.


"Fear" isn't what we've come to expect from Seventeen, a crowd known for their engaging performances and boyish charms. The last time the sort delivered such a sonic switch-up was 2017's EDM-heavy "Don't Wanna Cry." Nevertheless "Fear" is even heavier; it's more potent, more brutally sincere. Although gentlemen eventually become gentlemen, and "Fear" is the manifestation of such growing pains. "As we've made each album, we've come to realize the music we wish to prepare and what we hope to mention to our fans have began to converge," Woozi told MTV News in July. "The stories we hope to tell are the same stories we wish to tell our fans."


And as long as Seventeen keep pouring themselves into their music — the highs, the lows, and all the ugly emotions in-between — then their fans will keep listening.