A B- for RIIZE's latest change of direction
RIIZE's new digital single Insomnia has been graded a B- by The Bias List, in a review published on 25 October 2026. The verdict lands ahead of a release that the October comeback announcement scheduled for midnight KST on 26 October, and it arrives at a moment when the group's recorded output has been spread across singles rather than clustered into full-length projects.
The grade is worth reading alongside the numbers that accompany it. The Bias List's Nick awards eight out of ten in each of the review's four categories: hooks, production, longevity and the reviewer's own bias. That is not the profile of a misfire. It is the profile of a song that does several things well without quite becoming an event, and the review is explicit that this distinction is the sticking point for a track expected to represent the group for some months.
An acoustic mid-tempo, not quite a ballad
The review frames Insomnia as yet another shift in sound for a group that has declined to settle on one. Where listeners might brace for the kind of high-energy pop that has driven previous RIIZE singles, the track slows the tempo and moves into acoustic pop territory, resting on a persistent guitar strum that supplies the rhythm rather than a drum pattern.
Nick is careful with the labelling. Strictly speaking, he writes, Insomnia behaves more like an acoustic mid-tempo than a ballad, because trap-influenced percussion arrives early and keeps the track moving. That hybrid is familiar from elsewhere in the current boy group landscape, and the review hears a comparable energy to Doctor! Doctor! by ZEROBASEONE, released last year.
The vocal case in RIIZE's favour
The strongest part of the review's argument sits with the singing. Nick notes that RIIZE have capable vocalists and have handled ballad material convincingly before, and he identifies the chorus as the place where Insomnia makes its best case, with the members' voices layered together to striking effect. That stacking of voices is the moment the track justifies its existence rather than merely filling a gap.
For a group whose identity is deliberately fluid, vocal blend may be the closest thing to a through-line. The review does not treat the singing as a consolation prize for a weaker song; it treats the chorus as evidence that RIIZE can carry a quieter arrangement. The disagreement is about what surrounds that chorus, not about whether the group can deliver it.
What the review wants: one decisive finish
The central criticism is structural. Nick argues that Insomnia never makes the leap he wants from it, and he reaches for Love 119 as the yardstick, pointing to the way that single built towards a finale with real force. Without an equivalent moment of release, the song's gentler dynamics have nothing to resolve into, and the listener is left waiting for a payoff that does not arrive.
That is a complaint about shape rather than tempo. A mid-tempo track can still crescendo, and the review acknowledges that Insomnia injects some drama into a sound that could easily have drifted towards the soporific. The frustration is that the drama stays modest. On the review's terms, the song is pleasant and well made but stops short of the moment that would make it memorable on first listen.
Why the ZEROBASEONE comparison cuts both ways
The comparison with Doctor! Doctor! is not offered as a criticism of either song's quality. Nick's point is about context. That ZEROBASEONE track was followed swiftly by a mini album and a title track, which allowed it to function as an appetiser within a larger release. It did not have to carry the entire weight of a comeback on its own.
Insomnia sits in a different position. The review says plainly that the song would make a fine album track, and that judgement is inseparable from its release strategy: a digital single standing alone until a full project arrives has to work harder than a b-side tucked into a sequence of stronger material. The same song can feel generous in one context and thin in another, and the review is ultimately a reading of how it lands rather than a verdict on its craft.
Release pacing and the question of identity
The review widens out into a broader worry about RIIZE's catalogue. Their pick-and-mix approach to genre is enjoyable when the quality holds, Nick writes, but it becomes a liability if consistency starts to slip, because a group without a signature sound has nothing to fall back on when a song does not connect. In his reading, the risk is that the range starts to look like uncertainty about how to use the group's talent.
That concern is sharpened by the group's release rhythm. The review notes a promise of a new album, and our earlier reporting on the October comeback announcement had the second full album planned for spring 2027. Between now and then, Insomnia is what listeners have. The review's unease is less about this particular track than about the pattern it might represent if the gap between releases is filled with material that never quite lands.
How to read a scorecard of straight eights
The Bias List's scoring rewards reading closely. Four categories at eight out of ten suggest competence across the board, and the B- grade suggests a reviewer who thinks the whole is less than the parts. That combination usually points to a song with no obvious flaw and no obvious highlight beyond its vocal arrangement, which is roughly how the prose reads.
The review also leaves itself room to be revised. Nick observes that this kind of song often becomes more addictive with repetition, and that the guitar-driven arrangement brings a touch of drama to a style that can otherwise feel sleepy. A reader can treat those remarks as the reason the grade may drift upwards over the coming weeks, even if the initial assessment is lukewarm.
The takeaway
The Bias List's assessment of Insomnia is best understood as a warm but qualified response: the singing is praised, the production is credited, and the song is judged a strong album cut that does not quite stand up as a lead single in its own right. The open question is whether repetition does what the review suspects and turns a slow-burner into something more persuasive.
For now, RIIZE have a track that showcases their vocal layering and adds another genre to a catalogue that has never stood still, and The Bias List has recorded a verdict that depends far more on structure than on performance.
