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E’LAST’s Tears of Chaos is one of the many songs I have yet to get around to reviewing. But with the reduced number of releases coming out at the moment, I thought it would a great time to tap into that growing barrel of songs and pick a few to review. Tears of Chaos follows their debut single Swear, which perked my interest back in June. Released mid-November, E’LAST have been actively promoting the new song since. For this promotional run, Wonjun is not participating due to conflicting schedules and hence the group is left with a temporary seven member lineup.

Tears of Chaos is another gripping song from the group. The start is purely chilling. There is a stillness to this section (thanks to the piano) that I find so captivating. The start is further enhanced by the remarkable rap-speak sequence brought to us by Wonhyuk, which infuses all of this intensity into the song that just really pulls you in. The soft vocals that follow adds to that chilling vibe and brings it a whole new level. To me, these parts felt like the ‘calm before the storm’, with the clanging beat in the background of the verse allude to the dramatic flairs to come. When more of the beat kicks in soon after, you can hear more of the incline in momentum, which makes the promise that the chorus was going to be epic. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed with the chorus. I wanted something more dynamic and had more power channeling through it. What we got was a melodic take on a classical mashup with heavy dramatic synths, which definitely an interesting route to take. It works well with the rest of the song, but I guess I am hungry for more. But the song isn’t over yet. What came after the first chorus was the rapping and that blew me way. To me, Tears of Chaos peaked with intensity during the second verses and Rano and Wonhyuk showed us that they can be really extremely passionate and dynamic. Similarly, that little section just before we go back into the ‘calm before the storm’ mode (or is not ‘calm after the storm’ mode?) showed us an extension of that dynamism, with the members providing us more kicked up vocals and raps despite the music ending. Overall, Tears of Chaos impresses as a whole. I may be have been let down slightly with the chorus, but the rest of the song compensated.

While I really like the aesthetics for this music video and the overall imagery throughout, I cannot figure out the story that they were telling in the video. And I am not going to even try to attempt to make sense of the video. But I would like to hear any theories you may have about the video. I particularly like the idea of the zoetrope set, which made the video appear cooler. I also really like the vibrancy of the blue in the sets and the dominance of a colour in the other sets. Definitely aesthetic and visually appealing to watch.

I really liked how eerie the performance was. The music lends extremely well to this description. Their facial expressions were really well thought out. I wished the moves a little more dynamic. They felt quite flowy and loose, which I didn’t feel suited the song. Similarly, the formation felt very spacious and I wished things were a bit tighter. However, the flying member we see towards the end was an epic moment for this choreography.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.5/10