Envy Vinyl, CD & Tape 12 Items

Having witnessed so much change over their 32 year career, Japanese post-hardcore legends envy have remained a steadfast and dominantforce within the country’s boundary-pushing heavy scene and beyond. With envy’s original roots in thrash-metal and screamo still word proudly on their sleeves, the band have steadily evolved their sound to incorporate euphoric elements of post-rock and shoegaze to spectacular efect. ‘Eunoia’, their 8th full-length release, is truly a landmark album; the perfect balance of aggression and elation that sees the band’s revitalised lineup exploring a latent sense of powerlessness in the face of a fractured and increasingly divisive world. Six years ago in 2018, founding envy members Nobukata Kawai and Manabu Nakagawa were joined by new members yOshi, Yoshimitsu Taki and Hiroki Watanabe before the freshly bolstered five piece were reunited onstage in a surprise return of the band’s original frontman, Tetsuya Fukagawa. This meeting of creative minds, between hardcore’s esteemed old guard and the latest generation to emerge from Japan’s innovative post-hardcore community, has subsequently seen envy reprise the abrasive thrash of early releases such as 1998’s genre-defining ‘From Here to Eternity’ and their collaborations with acts including Thursday and Jesu before imbuing it with lived experience, dynamic patience and the eerie uncertainty of the contemporary. As such, the band’s most recent release, 2020’s ‘The Fallen Crimson’ is an adrenaline rush of spoken word soliloquy; rich, reverberating guitar motifs and revitalised outburst of discordant post-hardcore fury. ‘Eunoia’, a word describing the mutual feeling of goodwill that exists between a speaker and their audience, takes this dichotomy of calm and chaos and distils it even further, showcasing the band truly in their element, both on stage and in the studio. Consisting only of songs that the band can and will play on stage, the album was written around the idea of searching for hope and inspiration from day to day life whilst feeling powerless against the weight of the world. As such, the band expected their conscious use of minor keys and Tetsuya’s candid, diary-like lyrics to produce a despairing and remorseful record. However, whilst these emotions are keenly felt through ‘Eunoia’, the album as a whole is far from defeated with sharp shards of light, warmth and hope piercing the gloom, just as all feels lost. However, it is ‘Imagination and Creation’, the album’s de facto opening track, that rings in our ears the loudest. Described by Nobukata as “a step forward into the future, using the past as nourishment”; blast beat drums and shrieking guitars propel a defiant and contagiously hopeful vocal melody into the unknown as a band with such a storied past learn to cherish the now as a means of bracing themselves for whatever happens next. 1. Piecemeal2. Imagination and Creation3. The Night and The Void4. Beyond the Raindrops5. Whiteout6. Lingering Light7. Lingering Echoes8. January’s Dusk

Envy played only one show after the worldwide release of their critically acclaimed album The Fallen Crimson in February 2020, and before COVID-19 made the world of live music come to an indefinite halt: a crazy, sweaty, sold-out hometown show at Liquidroom, a venue that has become sort of an extended living room for the Tokyo band. It's hard not to become melancholic listening to this audio snapshot of a glorious evening, and remembering the sheer raw energy oozing from this band on stage the sight to behold that is envy live.We were lucky that we were able to play this one gig before all live shows were canceled due to the COVID-19 situation", says vocalist Testu Fukagawa. ,The performance itself is a bit rough and we could probably have performed better, but we wanted to send our fresh feelings to our fans by means of this performance, while they can't see envy live."Throughout their storied carreer, envy have played iconic festivals like All Tomorrow's Party and Fuji Rock Festival, have toured or shared the stage with bands like MOGWAI, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, ISIS, CONVERGE or DEAFHEAVEN and released split albums with bands like THURSDAY, JESU or THIS MACHINE KILLS. Envy have forged an idiosyncratic sound of driven intensity, where brutality and beauty seemlessly coexist and compliment rather than contradict one another. A sound that is built equally on the pillars of hardcore on one hand and post-rock on the other, so the term post-hardcore makes sense to some degree_ but it wasn't until years later that the term first popped up.We dodn't care about what genre of music we were writing or if it was going to sell well, we just did what we felt was right". The lucky crowd at HELLFEST 2019 could witness how right this is: Envy annihilated the crowd and every other band who played that festival, and left nothing but smoke and debris.

For over 28 years envy have been crafting soaring compositions with captivating melodies that owe as much to Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai as they do to Bad Brains and Cro-Mags. Their new EP continues to display a masterful control of tension and release in chords and melodies behind the steady spoken-word Japanese of singer Tetsuya. Throughout their storied career, Japanese Envy have paved the way for iconic bands like Isis, Converge and Deafheaven with their unique sound blending elements of hardcore / punk with reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines owing to the world of post-rock. Envy sit right in between these 2 worlds, and prove that they are not as disparate as it seems at a first glance. Opening track ,Seimei` marries tear-inducing melodies with gut-wrenching grooves to create a soul journey, while ,Zanshin` (meaning ,uninterrupted heart` in Japanese) dashes forward with an upbeat groove and soaring post rock leads. On ,Tamayura', the energy is dialed back as reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines wash over you from behind alongside Japanese spoken word-parts and a throbbing heartbeat. This is Envy at their very best. FFO Mono, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Isis, Swans, Pelican, Caspian, Thursday, From Autumn To Ashes, Thursday, Birds In Row, Deafheaven

For over 28 years envy have been crafting soaring compositions with captivating melodies that owe as much to Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai as they do to Bad Brains and Cro-Mags. Their new EP continues to display a masterful control of tension and release in chords and melodies behind the steady spoken-word Japanese of singer Tetsuya. Throughout their storied career, Japanese Envy have paved the way for iconic bands like Isis, Converge and Deafheaven with their unique sound blending elements of hardcore / punk with reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines owing to the world of post-rock. Envy sit right in between these 2 worlds, and prove that they are not as disparate as it seems at a first glance. Opening track ,Seimei` marries tear-inducing melodies with gut-wrenching grooves to create a soul journey, while ,Zanshin` (meaning ,uninterrupted heart` in Japanese) dashes forward with an upbeat groove and soaring post rock leads. On ,Tamayura', the energy is dialed back as reverb-drenched tremolo-picked guitar lines wash over you from behind alongside Japanese spoken word-parts and a throbbing heartbeat. This is Envy at their very best. FFO Mono, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Isis, Swans, Pelican, Caspian, Thursday, From Autumn To Ashes, Thursday, Birds In Row, Deafheaven

Cover and vinyl are close to NM. Original inner sleeves.

close to NM. With insert.

close to NM. With insert. Limited edition

Box has light shelfwear Original inner sleeves have slight ringwear. Vinyl looks unplayed with only very light scuffs from inner sleeve that don't affect play.

"Invariable Will, Recurring Ebbs and Flows is a limited-edition super-deluxe box set that collects every song ever recorded by Envy (95 songs in total) across 14 vinyl LPs, all remastered for vinyl in 2013. Each record is housed in its own full-color jacket, featuring all new artwork. Also included is a brand new, previously unreleased 100-minute DVD, a DVD data disk packed with all 95 songs in high-quality MP3 format, and a 100-page coffee table book featuring dozens of exclusive photos, plus lyrics to every Envy song, transcribed in both Japanese and English languages. The entire package is housed in a sturdy custom outer box – printed on a custom reflective metallic foil board."