Artist: Envy
Album: The Fallen Crimson
Genre: Post-Hardcore / Metal
Country: Japan
Release Date: 7th of February, 2020
Released via Pelagic Records
Cover Artwork © Pelagic Records, 2020
What do bands such as Sigur Rós, Celeste and Envy have in common?
They all use guitars? Right.
They are all not from America? Yes.
You can fit a „post“ in their genre? Mostly yes.
But that is not the point I‘m trying to make.
They all sing in languages I don‘t understand. The lyrics are an important ingredient to me, when it comes to music, especially in genres like Hardcore. In other genres, though, lyrics are of nearly no importance at all – in my case it would be Post-Rock / Metal. I never really cared what the bands mentioned above were trying to tell me. Celeste and Envy have their lyrics in their booklets, Envy even offer a translation. Still I never made the effort to read them.
But why?
My first Envy concert was a truly mind-blowing experience (Just look at my bio). I didn‘t know many songs (just one album I had not heard a long time, it was Insomniac Doze I guess) but from the first song on („Chain wondering deeply“) I was totally captivated. The soaring guitars, the sheer wall of sound and on top of that the screaming of Tetsuaya Fakagawa. I did not know what he was telling me, but I knew – I felt that he meant it.
A specialty of Envy has always been those „sky-opening“ melodies (sounds cheesy, but I don‘t know how to describe it properly). Prime examples on this album are „Memories and the Limit“ and „A Step in the morning Glow. The latter one in particular has one of the best climaxes in Envy‘s career.
Compared soundwise to the other albums I would sort it in between Atheists Cornea and Recitation. The songs mostly last around 5 minutes and differ a lot from one another. Typical Envy songs (see above), fast and punk-sounding songs („Fingerprint Mark“) and everything in between (the female lead post-rock-ballad „Rhythm“).
What is getting more and more rare these days is that albums work as a whole, but Envy nails this one perfectly. From the energetic „Statement of Freedom“ to the calm „Eternal Memories and Reincarnations“ and the brilliant closer „A Step in the Morning Glow“.
Do yourself a favor and enjoy this musical “post-everything“ ride and use it a starting point for discovering this great band.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
9 / 10
As usual, we added the favorite track(s) to our Transcended Review Playlist 2020.
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