Japanese sextet Envy may not be a household name, but they’ve been peddling their signature blend of cinematic post-rock and dissonant post-hardcore since 1995 and have maintained a passionate underground following throughout their career. Fans were devastated when several original members left the band in 2015, throwing Envy’s future into uncertainty – so when vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa rejoined in 2017 alongside three fresh members, a new era of the band began. ‘The Fallen Crimson’ is the band’s first release of this new era and is an album that honours the band’s history whilst simultaneously looking forward to their future.
Opening number ‘Statement of Freedom’ is one of the straighter, (almost) pure hardcore tracks on the album, with Fukagawa’s stony rasp being the perfect accompaniment to the song’s angular riffs and chaotic energy. Next track ‘Swaying Leaves and Scattering Breath’ is just as powerful as its predecessor, but it’s delivered in such a different manner that the opener almost feels like a misdirect. Instead of blistering hardcore, we’re treated to a monolithic yet uplifting opening riff, followed by glistening tremolo guitars and a combination of understated clean singing and spoken word vocals, which are particularly effective thanks to the soft cadence of the Japanese language. The huge opening riff is brought back again at the end, but where most bands would play a simple half-time beat behind it to establish a sense of grandeur, Envy use an almost tribal drum pattern that creates an air of euphoric celebration.
This album is at its best when it takes risks like this; another good example is on ‘Rhythm’ where the only vocals are clean, poppy female vocals that feel a little kitsch when you listen to the song on its own yet sit beautifully in the context of the album as a whole, or on ‘Marginalised Thread’ where they lean heavily on a single cheesy lead guitar line, but the rest of the song is built around it in such a way that it doesn’t feel cheesy at all. That’s not to say that Envy aren’t still great when they play it straight, as they prove on the scorching ‘Fingerprint Mark’ – an absolute barnstormer of a track that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Touché Amoré record, or even a latter day Converge one.
Perhaps the only thing that might make this album a bit impenetrable is the fact that 100% of the vocals on this album are in the band’s native Japanese, but really this makes Envy stand out amongst their peers – to a western audience at least – and as such should be seen as a strength rather than a weakness. It will make it difficult for anyone who doesn’t speak Japanese to get any sort of lyrical meaning from these tracks, though if that’s important to you then there are plenty of translation tools out there to help you decipher them. For everyone else, there’s plenty to enjoy in simply treating the vocals as an additional instrument and letting Envy’s glorious noise sweep you away.
LIAM KNOWLES