Envy
A Dead Sinking Story
/rock action; 2003/

 

 



more info:
www.sonzairecords.com/envy.html

I write songs sometimes, well, at least i used to. I love them but lately writing has become a threatening task. When i don't write out of experience, I create a story out of nothing and so far almost every one of these stories has become true. And since i don't write happy reggae songs, this isn't cool. I used to treasure my innocence but nowadays i find myself looking forwards to the day of its complete annihilation. 

Envy is a japanese band. I don't know much about screamo or emo (when it was used to qualify bands such as Refused or Snapcase) but this music simply moves me. Desperate screams coming straight from the singer's guts, thrown against implacable walls of melodic distortion. The singer's got an incredible voice and the Japanese language adds a lot of charm and mystery to the songs and the lyrics, if i trust the translation in the booklet, are almost too poetic to be true. This band intrigued me quite a bit and i decided to listen to their previous album, All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead. While listening to All the Footprints... was far from being a joyful experience, A Dead Sinking Story sounds even bleaker and almost irrevocably hopeless. Nobody's faking anything here and pain has never sounded more real. The main critic i've heard about this album -pronounced by people who know their stuff better than i do- is that it is too linear and not as explosive as their previous release. I agree, but do not see it as a flaw. A Dead Sinking Story is a more demanding and, proportionally, a more rewarding listen. All the Footprints was filled with almost instantaneous emo hits and hints indicating that the band was still growing up, on its way to achieve something huge. Envy explores new territory, its music has evolved into a bigger, more dangerous monster and even though A Dead Sinking Story cannot be considered as their magnum opus, it is one of the most disturbingly moving records i've listened to this year.

-Barbara H

/dec 15th 2003/