The 20-year career of Envy went nothing like what a band out of Japan's hardcore scene would have expected. The members never predicted chumming around with Scottish postrock act Mogwai, or landing a track in a Shiseido cosmetics commercial. And two decades later, on the verge of releasing sixth album "Atheist's Cornea" on Wednesday, it's a situation that today's hardcore acts might, er ... get jealous of.

"Everything has gone so fast," vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa tells The Japan Times. "I sound old, but it seems like it all happened only yesterday."

Fukagawa formed a group called Blind Justice in 1992, along with bassist Manabu Nakagawa and guitarists Nobukata Kawai and Masahiro Tobita. Three years later, they changed the band's name to Envy and were joined by drummer Dairoku Seki. Influences mainly came from New York's hardcore scene, which include acts such as Agnostic Front and Sick Of It All. That may have been the reason Fukagawa originally sang in English, but he switched to Japanese for second album, "From Here to Eternity," because he was worried about piling too much work on his friend who was helping him with translation.

"It was a natural progression, since I was a fan of Japanese hardcore bands like Gauze (who usually sing in Japanese)," Fukagawa says. "So then I thought it made more sense for me to sing in my own language. However, singing in Japanese was a bit challenging for my throat, the vocalization is quite different."

Musically, the biggest challenge for the band came in 2003 and 2006 with a pair of full-length releases: "A Dead Sinking Story" and "Insomniac Doze." That was when Envy tweaked its hardcore with postrock elements to develop the sound it is now known for: melancholic harmonies via guitar arpeggios and tremolos that get filtered through ambient effects of delay and reverb. This was accompanied by Fukagawa's signature vocal style, which is similar to spoken word, followed by violent riffs and rough shouts.

"That's around the time when postrock was becoming popular, we were listening to bands like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky," Fukagawa says. "We were becoming better live performers as well, good enough to start challenging ourselves and approaching our instruments in new ways."

The vocalist cites Envy's friendship with Mogwai as key to its own success. Record sales and the band's fan base are both larger outside of Japan and though the group started touring abroad from an early stage, Fukagawa says it helped immensely to have the group's material released from Mogwai's Rock Action Records imprint. Fukagawa's guest vocals on Mogwai's 2006 release "Mr. Beast" also helped.

The way the two groups came to know each other was a bit of a coincidence, however. While on tour in Japan, Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite was given a recording by a Envy fan while shopping in Tokyo's Ueno district.

"They're good friends of ours now," Fukagawa says with a chuckle. "I feel now that the tables have turned. They're starting to pick up influences from us."

Being a bit of a book nerd, Fukagawa mentions that he was also fascinated by classical author Osamu Dazai when he was younger. The singer, who is in his early 40s, is now more interested in avant-garde works, like those of fiction writer Otaro Maijo. He says he intentionally focuses on works that he feels he can't relate to in order to avoid subconsciously being influenced by another artist's ideas.

This approach extends into music as well. Envy set out to record "Atheist's Cornea" without the interference of any new influences in an attempt to create a compact, 45-minute package of something that could be considered "uniquely Envy." This strategy was unlike the one the members took with previous album "Recitation," a conceptual work featuring 12 tracks each expressing one month.

"Atheist's Cornea" opens with the straightforward hardcore of "Blue Moonlight" before moving into the equally piercing "Ignorant Rain at the End of the World," a track that harks back to the posthardcore sound of the 2000s. Fukagawa says they intentionally placed the aggressive songs at the beginning of the album, and avoided the romantic guitar melodies that are characteristic of Envy's previous albums. However, tracks such as "Shining Finger" and "Footsteps in the Distance" are well-blended mixtures of both the blood-pumping hardcore and postrock melancholia, and the album stands stronger as a whole instead of featuring a standout single (much like "Worn Heels and the Hands We Hold" — one of Envy's best-ever tracks — was on the previous album).

"This time, we kept it minimal so the album could be listened to on repeat," Fukagawa says. "We were trying not to lean toward hardcore or postrock."

The band members are now preparing to head out on a nationwide tour that will start from May 15 at Pangea in Osaka. That show, and shows in Nagoya and Tokyo will be "one-man" shows (a sign in Japan that a band has "made it"). Fukagawa says he is looking forward to sharing the stage with friends in the other cities: Spike Shoes in Sendai and Slang in Sapporo — veteran bands that Envy has known for years. An Okinawa show with postrockers Toe on June 27 is being treated pretty much like a vaction.

"I hope it won't take five years until our next release again," Fukagawa says, referring to the gap between "Atheist's Cornea" and "Recitation." "I sometimes considered quitting, being too tired from long tours or believing that I ran out of lyrics, but I've realized that even after 20 years I still have my band to support me."

"Atheist's Cornea" is in stores on May 13. Envy plays Pangea in Osaka on May 15 (7:30 p.m. start; 06-6535-5569); Club Upset in Nagoya on May 16 (7 p.m.; 052-936-6041); Liquidroom in Tokyo on May 17 (7 p.m.; 03-3444-6751); Park Square in Sendai on May 23 (7 p.m.; 022-222-9999); Club Sonic in Iwaki, Fukushima Pref., on May 24 (6 p.m.; 022-222-9999); Klub Counter Action in Sapporo on June 6 (7:30 p.m.; 011-222-1413); Livehouse Mosquito in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, on June 7 (6:30 p.m.; 016-24-8899); Orange Box in Nagasaki on June 12 (7 p.m.; 080-8377-0894); Queblick in Fukuoka on June 13 (7 p.m.; 092-725-8785); Caparvo Hall in Kagoshima on June 14 (6:30 p.m.; 099-296-9888); and Output in Okinawa on June 27 (7 p.m. start; 098-943-7031). All shows are ¥3,000 in advance. For more information, visit www.sonzairecords.com.