Released on MOGWAI’s ROCK ACTION label in the UK, A Dead Sinking Story is the overwhelming new album from Japan’s kings of ‘screamo’ ENVY. It’s a dual onslaught of loud hardcore, fully felt and powerfully delivered, coupled with longer passages of more instrumental melodic breakdowns and almost ambient interlude sections. At very first listen it sounded like ENVY could to be archetypal post-rock with the start of the first track Chain Wandering Deeply resembling the template sound of so many bands who have listened to copious amounts of GODSPEED…and MOGWAI, however, then the screaming started and ENVY kicked off their pounding chaos hardcore noise. ENVY’s sound is refreshing and very much their own, having been perfected over the ten years or so that they have been together. The slower sections display a fragile beauty and the anticipation that accompanies the carefully constructed pounding soundscapes and builds add to the epic-ness that makes them so powerful. Tracks such as Distress of ignorance offer great example of the sometimes frantic, sometimes relaxed rhythms and of the raw emotion within the music, not just in the vocals. They are loud and beautiful and rivalling Tokyo’s other favourites, random noise-core group MELT BANANA as Japan’s best band at the moment.
sebastian
September 03, 2004 14:09:30
exactly, couldn´t write it better, unless i never wrote a review, hehe. love that band...
