Alternately soothing and savage, punctuating a blistering hardcore assault with contemplative quiet, it’s fitting that Envy’s domestic debut should be brought to us by Scotland’s leading exponents of the soft/loud dynamic. Like Mogwai, this Japanese sextet understand that taking things down a notch or two ultimately makes it all the more intense when raging guitars and thunderous drums then blast everything back into the red. Ditto screaming your lungs out like the weight of the world is stuck in your throat. Active for over 11 years now, Envy, like Mogwai and US contemporaries Isis and Converge, put method in their maelstrom with explosive results.
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