Song Review: Xdinary Heroes – Night Before The End | The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion

With as many digital singles as Xdinary Heroes have released this year, it hasn’t felt like the band has ever gone away. So rather than a comeback, Night Before The End acts as an extension. It also takes the opportunity to showcase a new texture to the band’s sound, slowing its energy for a dramatic rock ballad.

Given DAY6’s massive 2024 resurgence (which seemed to kick off with renewed love for 2017’s You Were Beautiful), I can’t blame Xdinary Heroes for moving down this route. Night Before The End trudges forward with similar melodic angst, cathartic from the very beginning. The gimmicks of their early work are gone, replaced by straightforward, powerful vocals. It’s nice to hear them explore this sound, though I crave an equally emotional set of melodies to really propel the track forward.

Rather than challenge our ear with greater melodic range, Night Before The End keeps its sights right in the middle. Even as the vocals stretch with ever-increasing tension, the notes themselves remain relatively constrained. This limits the song’s ability to truly unpack its emotion. A killer climax might have helped, but Night Before The End‘s unresolved strain might just give it unexpected longevity.

Hooks	7
Production	8
Longevity	8
Bias	7
RATING	7.5

Grade: C

6 thoughts on “Song Review: Xdinary Heroes – Night Before The End”

Damn, I loved it. It reminds me of a calm version of Pluto (my fave XDH song and one of my comfort songs), so it’s a plus for me. And unrelated, but listening to it feels oddly comforting after everything that happened with Seunghan in the past 24 hours.

8.5 (8, 8, 9, 9) for me.

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Meg says:

October 14, 2024 at 10:34 pm

Yes, yes, yes to everything you said.

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Surely they should get an extra half point for being in 6/8 time.

I have a feeling this will rock out better live when the volume is set to 11 and the lighters -er- lightsticks are waving back and forth. The guys stepping to and back from the mics tossing their hair back and shifting their shoulders emphatically in sync on the chorus downbeats. Then it will have its moment.

The recorded version however could have been produced better to lift this song. Little touches like how the verses are too soft and the choruses are too loud with not much in between could have compensated for relative lack of compelling melody.

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I do like it, but my rating is 8ish. I feel like the verses are too weak for the chorus, even though my feelings may just change over time. I was expecting something more from a “collapsedone” rock ballad, I guess because he had worked on Day6′ songs on the early albums like Sunrise. Turns out he almost never had a song for them done all by himself or as the first composer, and he is more engaged in working with Heroes right now.

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