Envy - Abyssal

Envy
Abyssal
Temporary Residence Ltd.
Grade: A-

As a placeholder for their next full-length, Japan’s Envy provide the anxious and impatient listener with this four-song EP. Following past efforts, Abyssal features extended indie-metal epics of atmospheric soundscapes with a myriad of speaking and screaming parts. For some reason, the vocal contrasts on Envy’s past full-length Insomniac Doze knocked me wrong, but here I love them! It might be that all the crap music that’s out there made me realize when you have something exceptional. Case in point is the ten-minute opener “Road of Wind the Water Builds,” where Envy moves between soft and heavy, slightly marching drums a la Explosions, and at the end you feel exhausted and used. That’s what you want! The middle two songs here – “All That’s Left Has Gone to Sleep” and “Thousand Scares” – are more traditional in structure, while the closer “Fading Vision” is a bit soft as a closer to great EP. Unquestionably, this is an EP you should check out; particularly if you’re someone who’s only recently caught the ear of Explosions.