The Angelus Album Release Show at Texas Theatre
Blade Runner: 7:30 pm
My Education: 10:00 pm
Mind Spiders: 10:45 pm
The Angelus: 11:30 pm
Plus, Cold Cuts DJ’ing in the bar!
Pretty. Bleak.
Those words encapsulate the sweeping and majestic sounds that build like storm systems and burst into bone-rattling sonic downpours that the Dallas, TX trio The Angelus summon up. The band has been stirring hearts and dropping jaws since they started playing live in the vibrant music scene of Denton, Texas. Spearheading a movement of inspired long-form experimentalism, they played a crucial role in the establishment of Denton’s reputation as a music oasis. Bandleader Emil Rapstine, with his plaintive and intoning vocals, despairing lyrics and darkly droning guitar, creates the musical equivalent of a magical realism novel. Longtime stalwart drummer Justin Evans provides steady guidance among the shifting seas, as well as soaring harmony vocals. The band has seen a few lineup changes, but finally solidified with the addition of bassist Ryan Wasterlain, who brings a manic and heavy edge to the proceedings. The Angelus take their name from the painting by Jean-François Millet, inspired by the feeling of lonesome supplication the painting conveys.
There Will Be No Peace is the trio’s most sonically focused and prudent offering to date. Gone are the heavily orchestrated and sprawling compositions of 2011’s On A Dark & Barren Land, here replaced with short bursts of songs that flow from one to another. There Will Be No Peace stands as a song cycle woven together with agile parts that spring to life on their own, but as a whole read like an epic poem of loss and redemption that leaves your heart skipping and your body shaken. Working out of Grammy-winning producer John Congleton’s studio, Elmwood Recording, the album was engineered, mixed and co-produced by Alex Bhore. Bhore, formerly of This Will Destroy You, oversaw the recording process with a spirit of experimentation while maintaining the band’s fundamental essence.