korean alternative music scene pt.1

hii!!

i bet y'all know about k-pop, the most popular music genre from South Korea. but what do you know about k-rock, k-metal and so on? i guess, not so many people know about korean alternative scene and this is quite sad since it is truly amazing.

today i am going to tell u about one of the most famous k-metal bands, madmans esprit!

madmans esprit was formed in 2010 in Seoul by Kyuho, guitarist and vocalist. there also were Nansi on bass, Hojin on drums, and Jungbin on guitar. they released their first ep, 'i just want to s*x with you", in 2011. also in 2012 there was an ep 'madmans esprit' with several covers and demo versions of the songs.

later Kyuho moved to Berlin, so madmans esprit became his solo project with him doing all work, music, lyrics and so on. he released two albums: 'Nacht'(2014) and '무의식의 의식화 [Conscientization of Unconsciousness]'(2018), and i sincerely recommend you them! these albums are a true masterpiece. 'Nacht' provides a unique sense of despair and agony, where classic guitar sound is mixed with brutal metal sound, and '무의식의 의식' is more poetic, where the almost classical sound meets with black metal sound. i honestly haven't seen anything similar to that sound, although people say that it is similar to vkei band Dir en Grey.

because of his own reasons(connected with korean army if i remember correctly), Kyuho returned to Seoul, where he continued creating music. the most popular song of madmans esprit, 'suicidol', was created there. as Kyuho said in the interview, the whole point of this song was in making it sound 'pop' but with very grotesque lyrics. 

he also released several eps and singles: 'glorifying s**c*de', 'mangtanshi', 'seoul', 'jahaewa haebang', 'garden of skeletons'. 

in 2022 he released a new album, '나는 나를 통해 우리를 보는 너를 통해 나를 본다 (I See Myself Through You Who See Us Through Me)'. it contained some remasters of old songs and new ones. in 2023 album won a Korean Music Awards as 'Best metal and hardcore album'.

there was a huge drama between Kyuho and Arc, the musician who played guitar on rehearsals and lives. in March 2023 Arc made a bunch of tweets where he blamed Kyuho in a lot of different things, from getting underpaid to being forced to dress up openly. tho Arc wasn't speaking the truth, Kyuho faced a lot of hate from his auditory, what impacted badly on his mental health, so he took a pause from making anything.

in September 2023 he returned with new live members and announcement of the 'Mismatch' ep and then released a lot of remasters and MVs of his previous works.

in August 2024 Kyuho suddenly announced that madmans esprit became a band and not just his project. now the band members are Kyuho on vocals, Juho and Somyul on guitars, Geon on bass and Limu on drums.

aand now they announced a new album, which is going to be released on March 30th!! it includes 12 new tracks and called 'Dandelion; 斷絕'.

i tried my best to tell MME's biography as short as i can, missing some not really important details. i listen to them for a long time and in fact know a lot abt them so if you're interested i can tell u more!