K-pop songs are all about giving energy and strength, but boy band EPEX’s latest song “Full Metal Jacket” wants you to have the courage to stand up against something a little more specific — school bullying.

EPEX will release its sixth EP "Prelude of Anxiety Chapter 2. 'Can We Surrender?'" on Wednesday, five months after its last album that came out last April.

EPEX is an eight-member boy band that debuted in 2021 under C9 Entertainment, home to boy band CIX and singer Younha, with members: Keum, Wish, Mu, A-min, Baekseung, Ayden, Jeff and Yewang.

The upcoming four-track album is a continuation of the “Prelude of Anxiety” series that EPEX began last year in April and a story that members hope feels close to the hearts of young teens who will be listening to their songs.

“We have always wanted to tell the story about the people our own age,” Keum told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview held last month prior to the release of the album. “That being said, there are heavy issues like school bullying, but it’s not just confined to that — this album will center on that, but that’s not the end of the story.”

The whole idea of the “Prelude of Anxiety” series is meant to talk about the anxieties which ail young minds, the biggest of which will include school bullying. The subject has been dealt with often in video content, namely Netflix’s renowned original series “The Glory,” but it is not often that a K-pop song strays from its usual brightness to touch on the imminent issues of society.

“Full Metal Jacket” is thus both an encouragement from the members for anyone victimized to know that they are not alone and also the bystanders to realize that violence is a problem that can lead to much bigger dangers and must be addressed, according to EPEX.

“We hope this rings an alarming bell and helps raise awareness against the dangers of violence,” Keum said. “We really wanted to convey the emotions right, which was difficult for us so we took extra care in expressing the lyrics and the images related to the song.”

Aside from “Full Metal Jacket,” three other tracks — “Surrender,” “Hit The Wall” and “No Roof” — also talk about the idea of finding oneself despite the realities that force young people to “Surrender” and “Hit The Wall.”

EPEX had been singing as young men fighting through life for listeners in the same situation. Members are all in their late teens or early 20s, with the leader and oldest of the group Wish born in 2002 and the youngest Jeff born in 2005.

The band’s last EP "Prelude of Love Chapter 2. 'Growing Pains'" aimed to depict just that — the growing pains of youth — while “Prelude of Anxiety Chapter 1. ‘21st Century Boys’” talked about the oppression that young Koreans endure under the harsh and competitive education system best seen in the country’s craze for hagwon extracurricular cram schools.

“The things we convey in our music are the things that are the closest to our age,” Ayden said. “We talk about them among the members and share them in the meetings with the producers. I think it’s easier for us to really express ourselves because the stories are either about us or the things that people our age go through.”

Having debuted in 2021, EPEX says that it has also had its fair share of growing pains and woes. K-pop bands that debuted during the Covid-19 pandemic struggled to gain the public spotlight amid limited offline opportunities, made tougher by other debuting rivals.

But the pains were not all bad, according to Keum.

“It did hurt,” Keum said, jokingly. “But I think we had the good growing pains. They helped us learn things, like when we go on music programs and we see the other bands on stage. We took the things that we have to learn and it has given us the motivation we needed.”

For the remainder of the year and also for the forthcoming days of its career, members of EPEX hope to keep going the way they have been going — to the top of the charts.

“All we hope for is growth,” said Keum. “We became the runner-up of television music programs with our previous album and the one before that, and we almost made it once. Our score on the charts is also getting higher, too.”

“I hope that one day everyone in Korea goes crazy over our songs,” Baekseung said. “Everywhere you go, you will hear our song and people will be dancing to our music in the streets to film challenge videos. That’s the ultimate goal.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]