Review: envy ‘Eunoia’
Japanese post-hardcore Legends envy are one of the most interesting heavy acts to emerge from the land of the Rising Sun. Throughout their thirty-two-year career, they have pushed the boundaries, evolving their expansive sound, which comes from thrash and hardcore roots, through screamo and post-rock, to incorporate euphoric shoegaze in a cinematic and cerebral complex fashion, balancing aggression with moments of serenity.
The latest album, Eunoia, follows their acclaimed 2020 album The Fallen Crimson. That album re-established their assured command over their craft after the English language, Agnostic Front influenced, first album From Here To Eternity (1998). Embracing their native language, envy have gone on to be a highly influential act through their post-rock catharsis recognised by Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, who released several of their records on his Rock Action label. This influence has been credited in some quarters for the birth of blackgaze and indeed they were invited to tour the US with genre poster boys Deafheaven in 2015.
Eunoia marks their latest release for Berlin-based label Pelagic Records and has been crafted to consist of only tracks the band can perform live on stage. The album name itself describes ‘the mutual feeling of goodwill that exists between a speaker and their audience’ to articulate a search for hope and inspiration in the face of chaos and hopelessness in a world beyond our control.
The eight tracks contained within mix elements that now define envy in this modern era: a heady collision of spoken word poetry clashes with raging moments of post-hardcore angst to create a tapestry of melancholy, despair and hopeful defiance in the face of an uncertain future.
Piecemeal opens the album with an orchestral hum; Tetsuya Fukagawa‘s emotional, conversational tones overlay the warm building sound. His earnest delivery of the diary-like lyrics showcases the universal ability to make the music transcend cultural barriers. As this urgency builds with a rising swell, they become more intense, and the trilling vibrations of the floating melodies become louder and more insistent as the short intro reaches its climax.
This explodes into the stately opening bars of Imagination And Creation, which thump and soar with the cinematic grandiosity that the band have embraced as they flex the confines of their sound only to promptly explode into a transitional shuffle of tumultuous, frantic guitars and gruff vocal delivery. The ability to switch between the lush, sweeping sounds of euphoria to the guttural churn shows how the veteran crew has cast their shadow on the genre. Oscillating between barks of spoken word that almost tumble out over the frenetic drumming and the otherworldly harmonies, Fukagawa is low in the mix but an ever-present force that informs the delivery with the drama of the song.
The Night And The Void begins complete with birdsong and ethereal singer-songwriter-style melodies. The warm guitar over the laidback but assured drumming is full of shimmering indie-like delicate notes as the sombre spoken word brings the listener close with its embrace. Here they slowly turn the screw as the sound rises, the dynamics edge the passionate, emotional piece ever onward, and as the vocals get harsher, the music never loses the sense of serenity and beauty that makes envy’s music so dream-like.
envy has sort to cement their legacy as a band capable of scaling great heights of euphoria whilst using all the tools at their disposal to craft heartfelt and layered music…
The mellow drama of Beyond The Raindrops, one of the first pieces written for the album, highlights the juxtaposition of beauty and quiet versus the louder pummelling. Opening with an almost ‘80s pop-like groove that could belong to bands like The Cure, a stop/start drum fill opens up into the sort of floating post-rock that deftones have incorporated into their sound over their career. Awash with choral electronics and drones, this is a tender moment of triumphant melancholia.
From the first cymbal hit, the manic sounds of Whiteout with the stabbing staccato riff banishes the quiet. The lingering harmonies may still exist in the quiet moments of the track as the middle sinks to a blissful calm, but it is bookended by a furious thunder that sees pounding drums, glancing guitars and roaring vocals that show envy capable of effortlessly guiding the listener’s emotions.
Lingering Light is a woozy, backwards-sampled, jittery number filled with unease and paranoia. The short, darker, moody track is a mix between post-hardcore and industrial-edged nightmare, reflecting the fractured, oppressive and divided world which runs immediately into follow-up Lingering Echoes.
Channelling the same hard-hitting violence as the rockier moments of the previous entry, envy attempts to switch the feeling of despair with a defiant hope in the face of the darkness. Crashing drums that stutter under the chugging guitars power the band onwards allowing the bass of Nakagawa to provide subtle, intricate runs that underpin the sound.
The vocal acrobatics match the intense rush of the music as the band creates a storm of shifting tempos, dazzling guitars solo over thrashing drums as the garbled words tumble over each other in the heightened passion of the message. The false stop and isolated line from Fukagawa is striking as the band head to the finish line.
January’s Dusk reclaims the hopefulness of earlier as the band brings Eunoia to a close with more bright, assertive melodic tones. Here it feels that after the desperation and despair that envy has plumbed over the preceding twenty-five minutes are banished. With the soft rays of the dawn light and the prospect of a new beginning backing up the intent to create a record that seeks to bring ‘shards of light, warmth and hope that pierce the gloom, just as all feels lost’.
With their eighth and latest album, envy has sort to cement their legacy as a band capable of scaling great heights of euphoria whilst using all the tools at their disposal to craft heartfelt and layered music. Fans of the band will lap this up and those familiar with Pelagic will find this is a great addition as they continue to shine a light on this underrated crew.
Label: Pelagic Records
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Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden
