Photo credit: ROCKIT GIRL Official Instagram.

ROCKIT GIRL doesn’t cater to algorithms or trends, she channels something far more primal. With “Through the pain,” Han Leeseul, the band’s sole remaining member, sharpens her sound into a weapon of memory and survival. Released on May 5, the track is a sonic rallying cry from an artist who refuses to go quietly, carrying the embers of Korean rock and heavy metal into the present with unflinching emotional depth.

The song is loud. Unapologetically so. But beneath the distortion and thunder lies a clear centre: a lyricism shaped by personal rupture, and a refusal to let the past vanish without witness, embedded in a wall of sound sculpted by Leeseul and co-writer/arranger Jeon Hojin.

It’s no coincidence that “Through the pain” feels like it could soundtrack an end-of-world anime sequence. There’s scale to it: drama, urgency, stakes. The song doesn’t seek to comfort so much as confront. The guitars churn like machinery breaking down, drums crash in spirals, and Leeseul’s vocals emerge piercing, melodic, and emotionally flayed. It’s a release for the bruised; catharsis coated in steel.

Leeseul is no stranger to survival. Since debuting in 2019 with the EP Little Cat, ROCKIT GIRL has walked a path paved with instability: member changes, niche genre barriers, and the constant recalibration of what it means to be a female-fronted rock act in the Korean landscape. When Della exited the group in 2021, Leeseul chose not to pivot away from rock, but to dig deeper into it. That decision gives “Through the pain” its weight; it’s a continuation of a legacy that might have otherwise disappeared.

It’s tempting to romanticise her persistence, or to cast Leeseul as a symbol of underground integrity or artistic purity. But doing so risks flattening what she’s actually doing: evolving. “Through the pain” is heavy, yes, but it’s also textured, atmospheric, and compositionally sharp. The production doesn’t simply drown in distortion, but moves with purpose. In a landscape where genre lines increasingly blur, ROCKIT GIRL’s metal isn’t retro fetishism. It’s forward-facing, emotionally literate, and globally legible.

The music video reinforces this ambition. Surrounded by flickering visuals and gothic roses, it’s her presence that dominates. There’s no over-stylisation here or faux rebellion; her styling avoids rock clichés, leaning toward sleek minimalism rather than cosplay grit. That duality has always been her strength: a willingness to be both raw and refined, guttural and graceful. In a media space still reluctant to give female rock acts their due, Leeseul’s ability to command both sonic and visual spaces with such clarity is significant.

There’s a sense that “Through the pain” isn’t just a song, but a declaration: that memory matters, that loss can have rhythm, and that some echoes are worth chasing until your voice breaks trying. In her own words, the track expresses “a determination to move forward while holding onto precious memories, even amid broken recollections and fading echoes.”

ROCKIT GIRL might still be an outlier – a band of one in an industry of systems – but that doesn’t make her marginal. In many ways, it makes her essential. Her music offers something few others are attempting in this space: a bridge between emotional specificity and sonic intensity, between rock lineage and K-pop’s hypermodern future.

With “Through the pain,” Han Leeseul continues to carve space – and the echo she leaves behind is anything but fading.

K+ is our editorial space dedicated to artists outside the K-pop realm, where we spotlight diverse voices shaping the wider Korean music world.