It has been a long time coming, but it brings great pleasure to say that B.A.P has reunited! It has been six years since the group disbanded upon leaving their former company, TS Entertainment. Today, the group reunites as a quartet: BANG Yong Guk, JUNG Daehyun, YOO Youngjae, and MOON Jongup. Fellow former member ZELO is not part of this comeback due to his military enlistment. However, I saw a message of support from ZELO in the comments to the music video released alongside their new single, Gone (which leads me to believe we might see five members together in the future). Gone is the lead single off their new mini-album Curtain Call.

Gone is very unlike any B.A.P release I have heard before (as far as I can remember). It is much more sentimental, which makes perfect sense given the lyrics convey nostalgia as well as the thoughts that this moment with each other may be their last. In Gone, the music is a lot more subdued than usual for the group (for reasons already mentioned), and there is more focus on acoustics and band instrumentation. I actually quite enjoyed this, especially since the lesser presence of synths sounded refreshing. The softer sound also enables the group to showcase their vocals, which they all do quite well in Gone. While it isn’t that powerful as I had hoped for, you can really hear the passion behind each member in Gone. I have always thought that each member of B.A.P was born to be on stage. The passion and subtle emotion that delivery in Gone is testament to that. JUNG DAEHYUN and YOO YOUNGJAE’s vocals were strong and steady as always. I liked how softer BANG YONG GUK sounded in Gone, and his vocals parts brought nice texture to the song. But the standout member, in my opinion, is MOON JONGUP. I haven’t really paid attention to MOON JONGUP’s outputs since 6 years ago, but he needs to keep up with whatever he has been doing as he has shown the greatest improvement in the group with this release. My only critique about the song is that the melodies could have been a bit stronger and more developed to be more memorable. But aside from that, it was great to hear B.A.P again (sans ZELO) in Gone after 6 years.

The video sees the members reunite and hang out with one another. The video opens up with the members meeting in a diner. They have their banter in the diner before going onto a road trip to a stage where they will perform with one another again. They stop at a service station that has a sign that says ‘Closing Down, Thank you for the last 12 years‘, which is represents the time that has passed since their debut in 2012. While raiding the service station, the video snaps to a Korean barbeque restaurant which sees the members, again, enjoying a meal and each other’s company before we are taken to the stage where we can see the members perform for the first time in a while. The KBBQ scene does highlight some nerves they have since they are returning to the stage after a long time. The video ends with the members back at the restaurant, pleased and proud with the resulting music video on their phone. Despite the song’s lyrics as mentioned above, the members remain with one another at the restaurant, telling us that this wouldn’t be the last time we see the members together again.

To match the sentiment of the song, the choreography for this comeback is rather flowy. And I like how logical that is. Most of the dancing itself was handled by the dancers, allowing the members to focus on the vocal work that comes with a song like Gone. But the parts the members do participate in had this powerful aura to it that reminds me of their past.

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