I am now back, and will start to review releases that I have missed (from past and previous weeks) and continue to review new releases as they come out this week. Album reviews will also restart next week with TXT and Brave Girls up first.

VERIVERY made their official comeback on Monday with TRIGGER and their sixth mini-album, Series ‘O’ Round 2: Hole. This comeback follows the release of Get Away and Series ‘O’ Round 1: Hall from earlier this year. It also marks the return of Minchan, who has been absent since the end of October for health reasons. Almost a week later, I am finally getting around to reviewing it.

TRIGGER begins with a clickity-clack synth that is quite intriguing. It isn’t a mind-blowing start if that is what you are expecting, but I would say that the synth and effect itself sets the tone of the entire track from the get-go. Then comes in polished vocals and strong rapping from the members, before they lead into the pre-chorus with a similar vocal and rap sequence. I really enjoyed the concentrated buildup in the pre-chorus, starting off in a calming manner before accelerating to the chorus. The line ‘Pull The Trigger‘ is an excellent launch into the chorus, which is undoubtedly intense and powerful without necessarily going into a ‘dark’ motif, but yet it has that edginess to it that makes it so robust and cool. The repetition of the song’s title in the chorus also makes it a catchy number. What I quite like about the second verse of TRIGGER is that it is very different to the first verse, in terms of structure. This definitely keeps TRIGGER interesting. Powerful rapping returns first, then the instrumental briefly adopts a fast tempo thumping beat, which then slows down to make way for a vocal-dominant pre-chorus that differs from the first pre-chorus thanks to the presence of ad-libs. The bridge opts for vocals as well, with TRIGGER slowing down instrumentally to make way for an atmospheric sequence, which then ramps up to match the vocal climax that the members deliver. The final chorus also contains an additional sequence/extension that brings up the dynamisms to finish the song on a high note (and the high note within the final chorus is also quite remarkable and worth mentioning as well). I also really liked the deep synth thumps we get at the very end of TRIGGER, which signals the official end of the song. It was abrupt and sudden, but I think it works well in this song. Overall, a very interesting and intense song which fits into (what I think is) VERIVERY’s sound.

The ending of Get Away starts off the music video of TRIGGER (i.e. the member with the bag over his head is making his way down the spiral road, the image of a gun and the eyeball that diffuses out), which makes me think the events in TRIGGER is actually the aftermath. Still, not entirely sure what is exactly happening, over then the members are dying one by one. Again, it looks like alter-egos of the members are after them once again. We see one of the members get shot by one of these masked bandits, which are see are them. In a reflection in water, out of five members, we only see one reflection (who is subsequently dragged into a mirror from what I could make out of his demise). Based on later events, it appears like the members are trapped in that circular building after they die, based on that one member who finds multiple screens with the other members trapped in them. He destroys the building, which I assume somehow releases the rest of the members. But I think some of those alter-egos have managed to replaced the real members, based on that suspicious smile we get from that blue-haired member (sorry, I don’t know names – see featured image of this post) just before he runs out with the rest of the members. That is just my interpretation of the video, based on my imagination. Though I would be happy to hear what the official story is or if you have a different interpretation.

I liked the aggressive and intense nature of the performance, particularly the guns they form with their hands when they repeat the song’s title in the chorus. It is recurring feature of the performance, which makes perfect sense.

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