ATEEZ released their 14th mini album GOLDEN HOUR: Part.5 on June 26, 2026 — delivering 'BAD,' a Brazilian funk-infused title track that marks the sharpest genre pivot in the group's five-chapter GOLDEN HOUR series, alongside a music video that pulled Hollywood actress Chase Infiniti out of the audience and onto set in one of K-pop's most unusual casting decisions of the year.
WHAT 'BAD' SOUNDS LIKE: BRAZILIAN FUNK MEETS ATEEZ'S SUMMER AMBITION
'BAD' is built on a Brazilian funk percussion bed — heavy, syncopated, and groove-forward — that departs significantly from the soaring orchestral production of the GOLDEN HOUR title track and the industrial density of 'Adrenaline,' the Part.4 lead single. The result is a summer anthem in intent and texture: lighter in atmosphere than much of the GOLDEN HOUR series but fully committed in delivery. ATEEZ have consistently used each Part as a stylistic reset rather than a repeat, and 'BAD' continues that approach, borrowing from a Brazilian music tradition that rarely intersects with mainstream K-pop production.
Hongjoong and Mingi, Stray Kids-adjacent in their prolific production credits within their own group, wrote lyrics for all five tracks on the album — an unusual feat of internal authorship that deepens ATEEZ's reputation as one of fourth-generation K-pop's most creatively self-directed acts. The five tracks cover significant sonic distance: 'MAMACITA' on Latin trap, 'TOXIN' and 'Body' in R&B territory, and 'Fallin'' into EDM, with 'BAD' as the connective tissue that positions the whole project as accessible without being lightweight.
CHASE INFINITI IN THE 'BAD' MV: FROM THE FAN PIT TO THE MUSIC VIDEO SET
The 'BAD' music video casts American actress Chase Infiniti — 25, born in Indianapolis, trained in musical theatre at Columbia College Chicago — in the lead role opposite all eight ATEEZ members. The scenario opens at a wedding: Infiniti's character arrives wearing eight rings already on her fingers, each representing one of the members, and when the groom tries to add another, one of the members interrupts the ceremony. The setup is playful and self-aware in the way that only a production with genuine chemistry between the idol group and a co-star who actually loves their music can sustain.
Infiniti has spoken openly in past interviews about being a longtime Atiny — the ATEEZ fandom name — and her casting came through the kind of full-circle industry collision that K-pop occasionally produces: a fan visible enough in entertainment circles to end up in the room when a casting decision needed to be made. Korean fans have called it a 'seongdeok' moment — the slang term for a fan who gets to actually meet or work with their favorite artist — and the MV's teaser videos, which showed Infiniti in the wedding scenario before the full release, generated substantial pre-release engagement precisely because her origin story as an Atiny was already known.
GOLDEN HOUR PART.5: WHERE THE SERIES HAS ARRIVED
The GOLDEN HOUR series has carried ATEEZ through some of the most commercially and critically successful years of their career. GOLDEN HOUR: Part.4 ('Adrenaline') debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales exceeding 1.5 million copies — a milestone that confirmed the group's status as one of the few fourth-generation acts with genuine crossover reach into the North American album market. Part.5, released at a different end of the sonic spectrum, tests whether their audience travels with them into summer-facing territory rather than only rallying for high-intensity production.
The five-track structure of GOLDEN HOUR: Part.5 is consistent with how KQ Entertainment has handled the series: lean, focused, and built around a single unifying mood rather than attempting to cover every stylistic base the group has touched across their six-year catalog. 'BAD' as an entry point is deliberately approachable, and the album functions as a summer document — a shorter, lighter-atmospheric chapter before whatever arc concludes the GOLDEN HOUR series.
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