[Update] EPEX’s “Anthem Of Teen Spirit” under fire for allegedly referencing ‘Kristallnacht’ in lyrics & using Nazi imagery; company responds

Boy group EPEX have come under criticism recently for the lyrics and concept of their latest title track “Anthem Of Teen Spirit“, which seems to reference the 1938 Nazi pogrom Kristallnacht, which literally means “crystal night”. That’s relevant because the lyrics in the EPEX song appear to reference this.

also this can't be excused as a mistranslation – they use the korean words 수정 and 밤 in the lyrics and the korean name for crystal night is 수정의 밤 so they knew what they were referencing and still put it in the song. pic.twitter.com/uTgDMrWn1U

— #1 chae luvr (@dgnerv) April 11, 2022

There is also further suspicion about their uniforms for the comeback, as well as the “I see them burning raw” lyric.

paired with “i see them burning raw” and these outfits.. nah https://t.co/5alrVTlRX4 pic.twitter.com/4hGvSSbuhz

— jen☆ (@kibumwol) April 11, 2022

One thing not included that I noticed was that the logo in the background resembling the Nazi Black Sun symbol.

There is likely a hyper vigilance for this group due to the fact that they overtly use mental health problems as a concept, and thus there’s going to be less reason to give them the benefit of the doubt in these matters.

Thus, I wanted to at least make sure there wasn’t some other concept at play here, but when I went to look up the lyrics they don’t really explain much.

Outside the window that fades away
The night in the crystal
All nerves are la-di-da-di-da
With all might, ba-ba-ba-ba-bam

Tonight, the crystals
That protected us are shattered
Before you become a prey
Yes, pull the trigger, click, clack, brrr like

Unfortunately, I don’t think this helps them when considered in conjunction with the music video themes that revolve around war, torture, and death. It sure seems like they tried to use this as some kind of edgy or quasi-deep concept, much like everything they’ve done to this point so far.

As many fans have been eager to point out, this whole controversy is obviously primarily at the feet of their company C9 Entertainment, but they have yet to comment.

Update

C9E has released an explanation.

So they are changing the lyrics to reflect the theme they wished to convey more accurately, which is that of commentary on Korea’s suppressive school culture, though they insist everything revolves around the influence of 1984 and not Nazism. I’m not sure how much this explanation actually helps alleviate criticism considering the themes of 1984 are essentially related to Nazi Germany (and Stalinist Russia), and thus the symbols will be as well.