ATEEZ is nominated for Best Stage Presence, while ATEEZ’s sixth mini-album, ZERO: FEVER Part 2, is nominated for Best Album in the 2021 KPOPREVIEWED Awards. Jongho is also nominated for Best Vocals. Support ATEEZ, ZERO: FEVER Part 2, Jongho, your other favourite artists, songs and performances by clicking here to vote.

As mentioned yesterday, I have been a bit busy especially in the last few days to review. But I am not busy at the moment, and so I will be reviewing the releases from the last few days. One of these releases is ATEEZ’s latest (?) title track, The Real, which is featured on the group’s 8th mini-album, Zero: Fever Epilogue. Actually, this isn’t a new song per se. The Real is ATEEZ’s final song on Kingdom: Legendary War, but has been revamped to be the new lead track for this album. This follows the release of Turbulence last week and their two comebacks from earlier in the year, Fireworks (I’m The One) and Deja Vu.

At the end of my previous review of The Real, I did mention that I would like to hear ATEEZ explore this unrelentless hype style. However, I had in mind that the group would do this through a different and original song, rather than the original. As mentioned already, The Real (Heung Version) has been been revamped to be the title track for this new album. I do have to say that the revamp was not extensive, though. If that is what you are after, then I prepare to be slightly disappointing, as I would say just under 90% of the new version is the same as the old version. In the The Real (Heung Version), there was more traditional instrumentation added, a slightly altered introduction, a more hype-inducing buildup for the pre-chorus and an extended final chorus at the end, which features an instrumental break that contains a prominent touch of traditional folk instrumental. Otherwise, the same delivery from the members, the exact same order and the same abrasive synths as per the original version of the song remained the same. I did wish that they went a bit further with the revamp like with the delivery (i.e. both rapping and vocals) and more pronounced changes, rather than subtle changes. That would have been a more mind-blowing experience. But while the changes described aren’t major, I did think that they did a good job of adding flair and continuing both momentum and unrelentless exudation of energy of the song (the latter being a massive selling point of the original version for me). Did I like the changes? Yes. But I think my original rating of 8.5 for the song component of the original version of The Real still stands with the Heung version.

In the case you were wonder the score for The Real (from the Kingdom: Legendary War post) on the blog is 7.9/10, which factors in the stage performance. The 8.5/10 song component of the release was never made public before.

I am not too sure what is going on in the video. It seems like the members are all of different factions and rivalry (based on that dance battle we get on the streets), but they come together to summon Yeosang back (who appears to be much more confident and arrogant (in a good way)). Something happened to Yeosang’s character at the end of INCEPTION and Deja Vu (and he is presumably the masked figure at the end of Fireworks (I’m The One) music videos), which were the main videos that made up the Fever series, hence why he needed to be summon back. The THANXX, Eternal Sunshine and Turbulence music videos might also factor in somehow, but I can’t think of how from the top of my head. Happy to hear any theories that you might have! After full reuniting, ATEEZ celebrates with one big street party! Aside from my haphazardly theorised theory on the music video, I thought it was a fun video that definitely draws from that side of the song.

Unsure if the performance has changed given the revamp, but the dance moves I saw in the music video were previously captured on stage at the Kingdom: Legendary War final stage. It seems like the moves in the music video a bit more oomph to them, and it looks much better than the stage version. I can’t fully make a judgement here, but it seems to head in the right direction.

Song – 8.5/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.3/10