The Angelus' 'The Other Side Of The Mountain' Addresses The Hope In Darkness

There's a righteous battle fought in There Will Be No Peace, the apocalyptic rock 'n' roll record released at the top of the year by The Angelus. The North Texas trio reaches across humankind with a body-rattling, desert-swept heft similar to its fellow Texans Lift To Experience and recent work from Wovenhand, but with hints of post-hardcore's melodic experimentation and Emil Rapstine's crestfallen croon.

"The Other Side Of The Mountain" comes at the descent of the album's narrative, in the cracks of light where hope barely shines through. Its lonesome howl picks up speed like a tornado, swirling together guitars and cymbals, but never quite touching down. Its video, in turn, also locates a lonely between-space.

"I feel the director captured in visual form something fleeting and something mysterious in regard to the transience of life," Emil Rapstine tells NPR. "Like the moment between your eyes closing and being shut, things are dim, but not completely dark. This is the theme in much of the music of The Angelus, and in the video for this song we see someone holding onto their hope in the face of encroaching darkness and pushing through to the light."

Director David Gilbert painstakingly filmed a tortured soul (portrayed by Ross Ashley) and a hooded figure (Vanessa Gilbert) in the early hours of the morning to catch what the director calls the "blue hour, which is really only about 20 minutes before the sun comes up and ruins it all."

"The music of the Angelus is beautiful, brooding, dark and powerful," Gilbert tells NPR. "I wanted to create images that exemplify those qualities and at the same time craft a story personifying the song's lyrics, while remaining ambiguous. The hooded figure appears so dark and ominous, but she's actually a good character. So many things in life appear to be really bad situations, but as you push through them, you grow. What you thought was meant to harm you, actually helps you. The man in the video represents all of humanity. We all have struggles. We all have mountains to climb."

There Will Be No Peace is out now via Tofu Carnage (physical, digital). The Angelus plays June 16 in Dallas, Texas.

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