THE PROGENITORS OF BLACKWAVE RETURN
INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST NOBUKATA KAWAI AND VOCALIST TETSUYA FUKAGAWA BY BEN SAILER
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016 was a difficult year for Envy. After longtime vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa left the band, fans began to wonder whether the remaining members would continue. While they pressed on undeterred as a four-piece, with guitarist Nobukata Kawai taking over vocal duties, it wasn’t long before drummer Dairoku Seki and guitarist Masahiro Tobita departed as well. After nearly 25 years with the same lineup, it looked like the influential Tokyo-based screamo band would almost certainly have to call it a day. With more than half the original members gone, what path forward could exist? Finding the answer to that question started with a night at the bar, bringing the band back from the brink of breaking up.
“I called Naka [Manabu Nakagawa, bass] for a drink,� says Kawai. “It was the first time for me to call him out since we formed the band. At that time, I told Naka, ‘it might be
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the time to end the whole thing,’ and he replied, ‘leave if you wish, I will keep Envy continuing.’ If I didn't hear those words, I think Envy would be dead for good.�
dence, either. The band’s sprawling compositional structures continue to borrow from post-rock and hardcore in equal measure, without succumbing to common clichÊs of either genre. Arguably, the way the band stitches together diverse aural textures into moving soundscapes is perhaps better defined by the intensity of emotion they invoke, rather than traditional labels.
band allowed for fresh ideas to seep into their sound as well, and an explicit delineation in each member’s role in the songwriting process led to the record being written “literally three times faster than before.�
Anyone who was holding their breath can thank that fortuitous conversation when they hear The result of this democratic apThe Fallen Crimson, the band’s proach to songwriting is a record seemingly miraculous seventh that sounds undeniably like Envy, full-length record, out now via yet manages to avoid the sense Temporary Residence. It follows of stagnation one might expect their 2018 EP, Alnair in August, “The word ‘genre’ does not mean to set in after seven albums (plus which coincided with the surprise anything to us,â€? Kawai says. “Rath- countless splits and EPs). Rather announcement they'd be reunit- er, it is clean tone, high-gain tone, than relying on muscle memory, ing with Fukagawa, and adding blast beat, D-beat, ambient, hard- there’s an intentional desire here guitarist Yoshimitsu Taki and core - as long as it is good and has to avoid being viewed as a “legacy drummer Hiroki Watanabe. If the passion, we want to express it. All band,â€? paired with a commitment two tracks on the EP were teasers, we wanted to do is to write a damn to continuing to progress musicalthen it’s safe to say that Envy is beautiful album.â€? ly. While that undying drive may back in full form with the release be what pushed the band forward of this album. To that end, the band’s songwrit- through turmoil, there’s at least ing process has remained consis- one other constant essential to the From start to finish, The Fallen tent since their formation in the band’s creative persistence, too. Crimson feels imbued with a re- early ’90s. Kawai brings a riff or an newed sense of purpose and en- idea to the band, each member “As long as Tetsu sings on our songs, ergy. Given the amount of turmoil contributes their parts, and pieces it will always be Envy, and I believe they’ve overcome to reach this are aligned and realigned from that can't change,â€? Kawai says. đ&#x;’Ł point, that may not be a coinci- there. Bringing new blood into the
