Kevin Rips: Envy - All the Footprints...

AB - Full album name is "All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead"

I know this one isn't exactly obscure, especially for a Kevin Rips, but since they've got a new record coming out (that sounds disturbingly like Grade, as one friend unfortunately had to point out) I wanted to show exactly the point where Envy shone. A friend and I just saw Red Sparrowes and were yawning through the whole set. Somehow Envy came up, and he mentioned how he thought they sucked or something - owing mostly to knowledge of their most recent output. I had to call him crazy. But then again, he had never heard All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead - Envy's clear-cut masterpiece.

Envy hail from Tokyo Japan, and I would almost deign to say that Envy are my favorite Japanese band, and this album is the proof - and believe me, I love a lot of Japanese bands. Most of their earlier records are pretty much unremarkable hardcore, still pretty good stuff, but most purely for the completist, while much of their more recent stuff, such as that released on Temporary Residence, has been aptly leaning closer to the post-rock vein. Again, solid, but still mostly for the completist. All the Footprints You've Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead is their masterpiece, finding the perfect middle ground between hardcore and post-rock. This sounds like a bad idea combining the two, and for most bands, it is - but somehow Envy found the perfect combo. I don't know how they did, but they did. The drums are epic, the riff soaring, and the vocals, even without knowing Japanese, affecting and incredibly passionate.

I'd talk about specific songs by name, but the copy of this album I have is the Japanese version. But in that third song... geez, how did they do it? With the shifting rhythms, epic to crushing to triumphant. And that drum fill 2 minutes into track 9 is one of the greatest things ever! And for whatever reason, this album just sticks out being more memorable than their others. More interesting chord changes, killer riffs, even the translations of the lyrics on this one are a little more literate and powerful. This album still gives me chills.
~KS

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