Former Japanese hardcore group Envy continues their growth with their latest album, one of soaring guitar epics that are marred only by a sameness in mood and approach. While starting strong, the album starts to unravel as the group adheres to its own formula too frequently.
Sweeping layers of guitars tinged with melancholy start many of the songs, followed by some spoken lyrics as the tempo and intensity build to a peak in which the singer’s speech turns into hoarse screams. The beginnings of songs like “Scene,” “The Unknown Glow,” and “Night in Winter” are misleading, for while the intros are among the prettier moments on the album, they too revert to the formula suggested by the first two tracks. However, the dark thumping ending “The Unknown Glow” is one of the few exceptions and proves that the group has the ability to experiment, I just wish they’d do it more often.
Another problem is that the singer uses his screams to cover all of the emotional bases. If he’s not talking, he’s screaming, which leaves little room in-between for any other type of expression. Maybe that’s an unshakeable holdover from the group’s hardcore days, I don’t know, but it’s a shame because the music is otherwise excellent, and sometimes even gorgeous. The exception to the screaming is the singing that appears a few minutes into “Crystallize,” which is a nice change of pace and suggests other avenues for the group to explore. Yet even this moment of refuge eventually leads to an emotional level that can only be communicated further via screams that sound like all of the others on the album, spoiling much of the track’s uniqueness. Used sparingly, this vocal approach would be more effective but as it’s currently utilized, I found myself bracing for the moment it entered the mix rather than finding the catharsis intended in its appearance. The spoken moments are obviously less grating but almost as predictable.
The rest of the band’s dynamics work well with its melodic guitar interplay and versatile rhythm section, and the music alone is often reason enough to listen once the vocals have numbed me into submission.
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