envy: The Fallen Crimson

The Fallen Crimson, which is the first new album from hardcore turned post rock outfit envy in some five years, is a meeting of old and new. Three fresh recruits, a returning vocalist and two of the old guard - in what seems to have been an ever revolving line-up - making up this latest version of an underground Japanese outfit that on this evidence should be much better known.

Mixing brutality with beauty may not be something new and yet envy do appear to have mastered the art of combining hammered harshness to something acutely rooted in shimmering fragility. It’s a tool many bands use but the main instigation of interest here stems from how convincing the clean sections are and that they’re never over forced or hurried through to get to the angst. Purer moments of the band’s hardcore past do shine through and with a level of believability that an outfit without envy’s long past - some 25 years - in this direction, couldn’t always hope to muster.

For me that all of the words are sung in Japanese heightens the somewhat otherworldliness that unfurls beneath what is a carefully constructed set of songs, with the language barrier not for one second preventing the journey from being a rewarding one. Impressively both clean and howled vocals fully convince but on an album where the production shines without blinding and where the guitars create equal amounts of serenity and anguish, that should really be no surprise.

Envy are entering a crowded arena with The Fallen Crimson, but they do so armed with an album bristling with intent and the ability to deliver on it. That in itself is something of a rarity and something we shouldn’t allow to pass us by. Hopefully it also signals what is only the beginning of this band’s next phase.

Track Listing
1. Statement Of Freedom
2. Swaying Leaves And Scattering Breath
3. A Faint New World
4. Rhythm
5. Marginalized Thread
6. HIKARI
7. Eternal Memories And Reincarnation
8. Fingerprint Mark
9. Dawn And Gaze
10. Memories And The Limit
11. A Step In The Morning Glow

Added: April 5th 2020
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: envy @ bandcamp
Hits: 820
Language: english

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