Record #668: Envy – Insomniac Doze (2006)

As long as I’ve been in the emosphere (read: like 2001 or so), I’ve somehow entirely ignored Japanese screamo pioneers Envy. It’s quite likely that I heard their names thrown around with acts like Orchid and Loma Prieta that I didn’t like at all, and assumed they would carry all of the same abrasiveness.

Had I known though that they leaned much closer to post rock than to hardcore, I wouldn’t have waited fifteen years to listen to this masterpiece.

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Record #665: Elliott – Song in the Air (2003)

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As convenient as online shopping has made it to find all the exact records that you’re looking for, perusing a record store can bring gems that you would have otherwise ignored.

Case in point: Song in the Air by Elliott, which I found at Planet Retro in St. Pete while browsing their impressive Punk/Metal section (Kate Bush was in there too, so take “punk/metal” with a grain of salt). Having been tangentially aware of them, I pulled up Spotify and scanned through some of the songs.

What I found was a powerful emo record that gets most of its emotional weight from the intricacy of its songwriting rather than the bombast of its arrangements.

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Record #650: The End of the Ocean – -aire (2019)

Post rock is typically a patient genre. Bands build elaborate landscapes of cinematic splendor and emotional catharsis that evoke the heights and depths of the human experience. But this usually takes a while: it’s not unusual for a post rock tune to sail right past the seven-minute mark—or even the ten minute mark.

But on -aire, The End of the Ocean achieves the same evocative heights without wasting any time.

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Record #639: Alcest – Spiritual Instinct (2019)

If history is kind (and accurate) it will remember Alcest as one of the most important metal bands of all time.

After all, the flood of bands fusing the passion of black metal with the textures of shoegaze and the drama of post rock (see: Deafheaven, Oathbreaker, Brutus) are taking pages from their playbook. Their debut EP Le Secret fused these elements together in a way that many bands are still using as a blueprint—and it came out in 2005. 

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