EXO is back and I will be reviewing both Lucky One and Monster. Not in the ‘double review’ format, though, since I want to talk about both songs. Their album has managed to break records that the group has set themselves including massive pre-sale numbers and the highest selling numbers in the first week alone. They, of course, conquered the charts and once again, proved to Korea and the world that they are not a force to be reckoned with.

Monster is the track that is more associated to EXO. It is a powerful track that is more of EXO’s style than anything else. Once again, the vocals and the rap roll smoothly in this song. The raps, in particular, suit the song a lot more. Chanyeol’s and Sehun’s husky and raspy voices really do wonders to this song. The vocals come together quite well and the power behind the vocals suit the song quite well. It is a song that oozes energy and the vocals exhibit the perfect amount of that power needed. I can’t say this song is catchy. It is fine as it is at the moment, but the chorus needed more of a hook to reel me in. It just doesn’t wow me or amazes me in any way. Just a standard chorus to be honest. I particularly love the ending of the song. It is a complete change up from the powerful side of the song. The song becomes much slower as Chen’s “creeping” dominates the foreground of the song. It kept the song interesting and yeah, it hooked me to the song. However, a hook at the end of the song doesn’t really mean anything to me, because the song is basically finished and most likely I have made my mind up in regards to the next song I want to listen to.

Okay, here is what I see from the video. EXO is some sort of squad that goes to war with the force. We see them sitting around a table at the start. I assume that war or fight occurs a little after that table shooting scene because the table and all the things on it is badly damaged at one point in the video. In the end, Baekhyun remains at the table, while the rest of them is being carted off to jail. This means Baekhyun betrayed the others (for his freedom, I assume). But wait! Plot twist alert. It is revealed that Baekhyun is a double agent and he ends up letting everyone go. That is my basic rundown of the video and what I saw. I think it is a great video overall. The story is there and everything was chaotic, as expected. The really like the dance scenes. Another fine video, where the darkness works really well. I also liked how in all the scenes, despite the darkness, they emphasised all the members that were in the scene. I liked the use of colour and the contrast between them. Also liked that huge pole with all the security cameras. Don’t know why, but it seems cool to sit on top of that.

Dance wise, I thought it was pretty cool as well. Fitting the song, it was quite powerful. It wasn’t obvious and the ‘power’ was very  subtle, but it was there. I loved the start of the dance with the violent swaying and the ending with Chen’s “creeping” part. And everything in between. Particularly the X formation they did in the first chorus. That blew my mind.

Another long review. Final Rating – 8.5/10