[iNews24 reporter Seo Byung-gi]
I listened to To Love Is To, the third single from hybrid metal band NA103, released on April 17. Each play reveals something new. At first the melody feels abstract; with repeated listens, the lyrics and the tune begin to align and the song becomes clearer.
NA103 doesn’t try to define love in this project; it probes its essence. Vocalist Tomji reframes human love through the prism of the praying mantis. For mantises, the female’s consumption of the male after mating isn’t an extreme aberration—it’s simply how their instinctual mating works.
Humans may have begun that way, too. But as civilization developed—along with ideas, norms and power structures—love shifted gradually from devotion toward compromise.
On To Love Is To, Tomji presents love as sensation rather than concept. It’s primal: accepting without calculation. He warns how a fantasized love, stripped of its core, can leave people diminished.
The band’s posture is deliberate. NA103 moves like a grub—slow, steady, unshowy. They aren’t performing for discovery.
In an age dominated by visuals and algorithms, they insist on sound as their primary medium.
Their music arrives slowly, not in quick flashes. It’s aimed at listeners who seek music and set their own standards, not at those who chase trends. They savor the moments a song brushes someone’s attention or holds a lingering gaze. That’s how NA103’s sound was shaped.
By resisting trends, they preserve a raw, unprocessed sensibility. Tomji’s distinctive timbre reaches the senses before any description can. As the AI-native era gathers like a storm, NA103 composes in their own measured way—slowly, but unmistakably—to help people keep touch with fundamental perception amid a galaxy of thought.
To Love Is To. Is your love thought, or is it sensation? Think Stop. Sense Open.
