Silica Gel drops third album 'Ballad of You' with MV for title track 'Manphasickzuck'

Silica Gel released Ballad of You, their third studio album, on August 20 via global streaming platforms — their first full-length since POWER ANDRE 99 in 2023.

Twelve tracks. The album is anchored by a concept the band calls nasintalgak (나선탈각), or "spiral molting": a reinterpretation of Buddhist reincarnation that moves from a flat structure into a three-dimensional one. The cover art, done in ASCII Art matching the style of pre-release single Molecular Gastronomy, shows twelve figures layered above a bird's wings, one figure per track.

The title track Manphasickzuck takes its name from the legendary flute of the Unified Silla period. Its music video, directed by Jeon Jaemin (전재민), uses imagery of birds flying along a comet's path alongside bold typography of the song title rendered in Chinese characters. It dropped on Silica Gel's official YouTube channel alongside the album.

The band had been building toward this release since December last year, when they put out BIG VOID (Single version). From July 25 — roughly a month before the album drop — they rolled out new profile images and teaser content in sequence, and previewed some of the album's tracks live at the 2026 Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival.

On September 26 and 27, Silica Gel will play KSPO DOME in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Their largest solo concerts to date. The full album setlist will be performed across both nights. After Seoul, they head into their first-ever Asia tour, starting in Hong Kong and running through Tokyo.