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Returning for the first time since their debut is GHOST9, with W.ALL. There are so many new male groups this year, so let me give you a quick recap of their debut. GHOST9, who are under Maroo Entertainment (the home of Park Ji Hoon), made their debut back in September of this year with Think Of Dawn. The group consist of nine members, Jinwoo, Kangsung, Prince, Junseong, Taesung, Woojin, Dongjun, Shin and Junhyung. Their debut track was described as ‘decent’ by me. I wonder if they will remain with ‘decent’ or exceed the description… Read on to find out.

Honestly, I don’t know exactly what to think about W.ALL. It definitely ticks the box for intensity and energy, thanks to the powerful chorus. The chorus was the definite highlight of the song, one that I look forward to after such verses that are so held back (in terms of energy) now that I have listened to the song and know what to expect. There are two things about the chorus that really gets me. The first has to be the epic feeling the first few seconds of the chorus felt, with the producers of W.ALL and members of GHOST9 ‘bringing it down hard’ with both the instrumentation and vocals, respectively. The second is the dynamic kick of energy we get in the second half of the first and last choruses, which really helps liven up the song and give it so much more appeal. The rest of the song is quite meh (standard, at best) and doesn’t do as enough as the chorus to really help the song. Sure, one could argue that the instrumentation for the chorus is overwhelming. That was my initial thought as well, but time really helped change that perspective. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t anything that can really change up perspective of the verses. If the verses were a little more dynamic and lively in some way, which would have better suited the chorus, I would have enjoyed the W.ALL more. With that, it looks like the group slipped a bit from that ‘decent’ descriptor.

I am a little confused about what the purpose of the massive robots in their music videos. As far as I can tell, the robot in the W.ALL music video is different to the one we saw in the Think Of Dawn music video. Are the music videos and stories meant to join up, or are they standalone music videos with just completely different stories? I can’t tell. Even standalone, I am not sure what the storyline of the W.ALL music video. The members are scattered throughout doing their own thing (cut chains to get into a restricted area, being locked up in a diamond shaped cave, getting chase by scary drones etc.). But they all meet up in the end to activate the robot in this video, which shoots a beam up to the sky. And then at the end, there were two beams shooting up at massive ships in the sky. None of this makes sense to me, and frankly this distracts me from the actual video. I will, however, applaud the sets of the music video and all the post production efforts to make this video look quite cool.

Can we just take a moment and admire their comeback showcase performance for this comeback? It occurred on what seems to be the roof of the tallest building in Busan. That is amazingly cool. Aside from that, the choreography seems like it is the most positive aspect of this comeback. It was a good routine, overall. When it came to the chorus, their moves matched the ‘hitting it hard’ vibe that the song had coming off it. The complexity of some of their formations during the verses also were a great aspect of the choreography.

Song – 6.5/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 9/10
Overall Rating – 7.2/10