Many years ago, the Japanese band Envy figured out a sound — a surging and tingly and muscular combination of shoegaze reach and post-rock tingle and hardcore muscle — that felt vast and epic and emotionally resonant. Thousands of bands followed their example, and Envy ended up inventing whole underground music subgenres almost accidentally. They went on to make music in those subgenres that was better than anything that their imitators could come up with. They kept doing it. They’re still doing it.

Envy’s last album The Fallen Crimson came out early in 2020. It absolutely rules. Today, Envy have announced plans to follow that album with a new three-song EP called Seimei. (That title is Japanese for Life.) Envy recorded the new EP with producer Takaaki Mino, a member of the Japanese band toe. The artwork comes from Chris Taylor, from the American screamo greats Pg.99 and Terminal Bliss, who also did the artwork for Envy’s 2018 EP Alnair In August.

Envy have shared the opening title track from Seimei, and it’s a banger. The sound is nothing new for this band. Guitars crunch and roar and spiral melodically while singer Tetsuya does urgent spoken-word. That’s pretty much the Envy house style. Nobody should have any problem with that. Envy’s whole thing is so vast and instinctive and satisfying, and listening to them feels like battling angels in heaven. Check out “Seimei” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Seimei”
02 “Zanshin”
03 “Tamayura”

The Seimei EP is out 11/9 on Temporary Residence.