Silica Gel release first studio album in three years ‘Ballad of You’

Silica Gel | Photo Credit: Taemin Ha

Silica Gel, a leading force in the Korean alternative rock scene, makes a spectacular return with their third studio album. Ballad of You is out now across music streaming platforms worldwide.

Ballad of You is the band's first studio album in roughly three years, following POWER ANDRE 99 in 2023. Beginning with the release of ‘BIG VOID (Single version)’ last December, Silica Gel had signalled that it would step out of the "Machine Boy" world and present a musical direction unlike anything it had shown before.

Listen to Ballad of You here

From the 25th of July, about a month ahead of release, the band rolled out new profile images and a series of teaser content, while previewing several album tracks on stages including the 2026 Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival - building anticipation for the record. A range of events staged with the full backing of global music streaming platforms, among them YouTube Music, Apple Music and Spotify, added further heat to the wait.

The keyword running through the album is "Spiral Molting" (나선탈각). It is a concept Silica Gel newly proposed over the course of making the album, reinterpreting the Buddhist idea of samsara as a three-dimensional structure rather than a flat one. Working from the premise that the cycle of death and rebirth also carries depth and direction, the band folded that concept into both the recording and the visuals throughout.

The cover art is rendered in ASCII art, in keeping with ‘Molecular Gastronomy,’ the single released ahead of the album. ASCII art builds images from text and special characters alone, a technique widely loved before the rise of computer graphics. On the cover, twelve figures are layered over the beating wings of a bird - a count that dovetails with the album's twelve-track lineup. Paper texture is used heavily throughout, creating an atmosphere far removed from the metallic imagery of POWER ANDRE 99. On Apple Music, the release also comes with "motion cover art", in which the bird's wingbeats and the figures' footsteps can be watched in real time.

The title track ‘Manphasickzuck’ takes its name from Manpasikjeok, a legendary flute from the Unified Silla period. Directed by Jeon Jae-min (a.k.a. kamikacki), the music video draws on images of birds tracing the path of a comet and bold typography rendering the song's title in Chinese characters, realising an Eastern aesthetic that is at once mysterious and forceful. The video premieres on Silica Gel's official YouTube channel alongside the album's release.

With the album out, Silica Gel now turns to meeting audiences in earnest. The band first headlines KSPO DOME in Songpa-gu, Seoul for two nights on September 26 and 27. The shows - which will feature every track from the new album in the setlist - are the largest headline concerts Silica Gel has staged to date, and promise a performance set apart from its previous ones in everything from direction to stage design.

After the Seoul shows, the band widens its reach abroad with its first Asia tour since debut, running from Hong Kong through to Tokyo. From the third studio album to arena-scale shows and an Asia tour, Silica Gel's relentless second half of the year is drawing keen attention.

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Silica Gel are:
Kim Geonjay
Kim Chunchu
Kim Hanjoo
Choi Woonghee