LANG – “There Is No Reply, But Sweet Wind Blew” LP

The second album for Tokoyo’s Lang (recorded in 2018, and released on vinyl in 2020). The layered guitars; the dramatic energy that build and builds to a climactic peak; the enchanting melodic breaks with spoken word passages – this all screams NEW ENVY!! (I’m speaking as someone who some years back spent over a decade in bands that desperately tried (and failed) to sound like Envy). And Envy themselves might still be going strong, but there’s always room for more. And being Japanese, it seems, helps alot. On this 8 track album the styles and themes are comfortably posited within a mix of post rock and post hardcore, but they are blasted-out with all the intensity and tireless energy of timelessly classic Japanese punk. How to do it.