Enhypen: "Orange Blood" Comeback and "Sweet Venom" MV Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to another review! Today, we will review Enhypen’s most recent comeback, "Orange Blood," the second mini album in the “Blood” series. We will also review the “Sweet Venom” music video which is the title track for this album. This album came out on Nov. 17th, and I have been playing it on repeat non-stop since it came out. There are things I like about this album but there are also things I wish they did differently, which I will go into depth when I go into the song reviews. Before we start the review, I will discuss who Enhypen is and briefly dive into the members as I did with the &team comeback review.

Who is Enhypen?

Enhypen is a group that was formed on a television program called "I-Land" in which HYBE Labels brought in their most talented trainees to the stage to form a new boy group. The boys were tested each week in new challenges. They would be grouped into teams and had to assign roles within the groups which proved to be taxing in many ways. Each week someone would be sent to the Ground (a less desirable training area) and some would stay on I-Land (A well-equipped and extremely comfortable training ground). After weeks of different producer challenges that would showcase their charms, dancing, and vocals. The final six members were voted in by the fans and one by the Producers, forming Enhypen.

Members:

Jungwon (Leader, born 02/09/2004) -- He was a very consistent and strong contender on I-Land and has a background in Taekwondo. When I first got into Enhypen he was my initial bias.

Heeseung (Born 10/15/2001) -- One thing to note about Heeseung is that he trained alongside the members of TxT and almost debuted with them but didn’t make it. He was a top contender on I-Land each week due to his strong vocals and dancing.

Jay (Born 04/20/2002) -- Born in Seattle, WA but moved to South Korea when he was nine years old. On I-Land he didn’t initially get along with the members but became memorable as time went on due to his persistence. He was very funny and quite memeable.

Jake (Born 11/15/2002) -- Born in South Korea but lived in Australia until he was 9. He had the shortest training period compared to the others and struggled with self-confidence throughout the show but, now he has very strong vocal and dance skills.

Sunghoon (Born 12/08/2002) -- Another very consistent contestant on I-Land and was often praised for his strong dance moves and charms. He was a professional Ice Skater before deciding to become an Idol. He trained along with Jay who were the two to have trained the longest in the group.

Sunoo (Producer pick, born 06/23/2003) -- Known for his cute charms which was a trait that was lacking in the original six who were picked for the final group. This is the main reason I think he was picked by the producers but he was also consistent, had strong vocals, and was a crowd favorite.

Ni-Ki (Japanese. Born 12/09/2005) -- The youngest member of Enhypen who was praised for his dance skills on I-Land. He was inspired by Michael Jackson growing up and his father owned a dance studio. He wasn’t praised for his singing on the show but his vocals are much stronger now than when he started.

Other Important Info:

Label: BE:LIFT Lab, a subsidiary of HYBE

Debut Date: 11/30/2020 *They debuted during the COVID pandemic so, they weren’t able to perform in front of their fans for a very long time.

Debut Song and Album: "Given-Taken,"

“Border: Day One”

Concept: Vampires (Their storylines include webtoons and music videos and they are closely related to &team, which was announced in the Drunk-Dazed music video).

Fandom name: Engene

My Bias Line: Sunghoon (Bias), Jay, and Jake (bias wreckers)... However, I’ve been paying more attention to Heeseung and Ni-Ki recently so, I might just be OT7.

My Journey with Enhypen:

Before I get into the review aspect of this article, I want to talk about my journey with Enhypen. When Enhypen debuted, I was just getting into BTS and TxT, so I didn’t pay much attention to them. I mainly heard about them through my friend who got me into BTS and K-Pop, because she was watching I-Land at the time. I casually listened to Enhypen when they had comebacks but I realized I wasn’t a fan of their music, at first. I thought their concept was fun but their music wasn’t hitting me the same way BTS and TxT were.

However, once “Future Perfect (Pass The Mic),” off their “Manifesto: Day One” album came out. I started to pay attention to them more. I fell in love with this album because the sound and genres played with this album were much more up my alley. Not with just the title track but also the B-sides. It was with that album that I became more of a fan of theirs and did a deep dive into Enhypen by watching I-Land and other content on YouTube. Finally, they had their “Bite Me” and “Dark Blood” comeback, which had more of a dark R&B style. This comeback is when I fully became Engene and even saw them in concert in Dallas for their Fate US tour. Through these two comebacks, I saw the growth of this group and grew to love their new sound even more.

“Sweet Venom” Song & Music Video Review:

At first listen, I didn’t love this song as much as I thought I would if I’m going to be honest. I was confused by the music video because it was very simple, compared to the cinematic concept trailer for the “Orange Blood” album. The song to me was very repetitive and extremely short, and I felt like they didn’t do a good job with line distribution due to the shortness. Most of the song is sung in falsetto so we got a lot of Heeseung, Jay, and surprisingly Ni-Ki because of that.

Throughout most of the song, I felt I was missing Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon, and Jake. This had to do with how short the song was so I’m sure it was hard to distribute a lot of lines to everyone but I thought they could’ve changed up the vocals more than they did. Recently, I have noticed that Enhypen’s songs are getting shorter and shorter which has been a disappointment. I don’t know why they are doing this, especially for the title tracks, but it seems like it might be to get more streams. But, with all that being said, as it’s been over a month since this song came out, I have grown to love it. It is a very catchy song with a funky melody which is a genre I haven’t heard from Enhypen yet. It has a lot of nods to Michael Jackson in the ad-libs, which seems to be a trend recently in K-pop (especially with HYBE). But, I especially loved the Michael Jackson nods here because Ni-Ki loves and was heavily inspired by Michael Jackson growing up.

For the music video, there isn’t a lot going on which is very different for Enhypen. Usually, in their past title tracks, a strong storyline was tied into the music. This music video focused more on the dancing and played the storyline within the lyrics, similar to what &team did with “War Cry.” But, overall there isn’t much to talk about within the music video because not much happened as it was almost played in a loop. The boys were almost frozen in time and not moving throughout most of the music video, except for when the chorus came in. There were a few scenes that reminded me of the "Drunk-Dazed" music video. Overall, the music video didn’t impress me that much but I loved the Michael Jackson styling and the grove of it.

“Orange Blood” Album Review:

I know this is considered a mini-album, and that is something HYBE likes to do. However, I wish HYBE would just do full albums because one gripe I had with this album was that I wanted more. I enjoyed all of the tracks off this album, but did I need three different versions of “Sweet Venom?" certainly not. Another small problem I had with this album is that they kept mentioning that “Orange Blood” had more of a brighter tone than “Dark Blood.” When they hyped it up as a “brighter” album, I was expecting there to be more bubbly, fun pop songs in the same vein as the group “Seventeen” or Enhypen’s earlier songs such as “Polaroid Love.” I don’t think we got that, except maybe with “Orange Flower: You Complete Me.” Now, it may seem like I didn’t enjoy this album, but that is not the case, as this is a no-skip album for me. The main issues I had were with the overall promotion and that I wanted more, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

“Mortal”

This song is more of an intro song and tells the themes of the album. It was featured in the “Orange Blood” concept trailer and mainly has the boys talk about the themes of this album. The themes of mortality after being immortal for most of their lives and trying to live life in the moment. This album is all about becoming mortal and feeling senses they’ve never felt before as vampires. “Carpe Deim” is a huge concept for this album, and you can get that with the lyrics of this song.

Enhypen includes a lot of intros and outros in their albums to use as a storytelling element. Story, is a huge part of this band and a lot of bands under HYBE labels, as they have designed an entire universe with their bands. The music and lyrics are beautiful, and “Mortal” is very epic, but one issue I have with their intros is that they are so good that I’m always left wanting more of the actual song. That was a similar case I had with "Fate," from the"Dark Blood," while I loved everything about it, I still wanted more. But "Mortal" is very epic and enticing, and it gives us a sense of what this album is going to feel and sound like. It was also cool to hear all of the boys speak in their native languages, as we even got to hear Ni-Ki speak Japanese.

“Still Monster”

“Still Monster” is the second song Enhypen promoted with Sweet Venom. When I first heard “Still Monster,” I immediately fell in love with it, and it easily became my favorite song off the album. There is something very sexy about this song, and it has more of an R&B feel to it, which is a genre we saw the boys playing with in “Dark Blood.” I love this style of music, and it’s a genre within K-pop that I love more than the typical pop songs. I also feel that it suits Enhypen and its vampire theme very well. But if we are talking about this album being lighter than what they’ve done in the past, I don’t think this song fits that vibe. It feels very sexy, and the overall theme of this song is very dark. It talks about the boys missing the craving and idea of love and immortality. They discuss a lot about the only thing that keeps them alive: being with their savior. Being with their love, which, to me, could be correlated with being immortal, is the only thing that makes them feel like themselves. So, overall, it is a dark theme because they feel that whoever gave them this power is their only lifeline. It is almost as if they are addicted to the feeling of being immortal after testing out being mortal. While this song has a darker theme, it was more up my alley than "Sweet Venom" was. I loved the choreography for this song, as again, it had a lot of nods to Michael Jackson.

“Blind”

“Blind” is my second favorite song off this album and has somewhat of a brighter tone than the other songs on the album. It has a disco-tech/club vibe to it, which is another genre I used to love. I also feel like it is the sister song to “Still Monster" because it has a lot of similar themes. It is mainly about feeling blind to love, but in this case, love is their immortality, as the first line of the song is translated as "Immortality, I love you.” The former vampires miss being immortal and the person who made them immortal.

“Orange Flower (You Complete Me)”

The concluding song of this album is probably the brightest, it had that brightness I was missing that they were promoting within this album. It was a fun conclusion to the album and is a song that holds a lot of meaning to the boy’s storyline. To me, it is the follow-up to “Mortal” and is their promise of immortality and a promise to serve the person who made them immortal. After this journey of becoming mortal, they realize that being immortal is the only thing that completes them.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this comeback, as the themes of this storyline were interesting. I feel that Enhypen is finally honing in on who they are and what their sound is, as I felt like they were very experimental in the beginning. But I think the “Blood” series truly captures the essence of Enhypen beautifully, and it was by far my favorite series from them. This is also the era that made me an official Enegene, so it holds a lot of meaning to me. It makes me excited for more Enhypen in the future and to see how their vampire concept continues. Even though vampires have been done countless times, Enhypen’s version of vampires is something very unique and fascinating.

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