In six years of reviewing moodily symbolic group, the Angelus, I have never seen them quite as well-represented as they are in their soaringly dramatic new video for their track “Crimson Shadow.” It makes the ominous press photos, and even the seemingly ceremonial bells featured in past live performances, seem subtle by comparison.
The video begins its eventual overflow of expression with a trickle, about thirty seconds in. The group’s lead singer, Emil Rapstine, is sitting and appears to be looking through a window to a rainy outside, creating the illusion of actual tears by the rain’s silhouette. The effect brought to mind the 1967 classic, In Cold Blood, in a scene where one of the killers recalls his one earthly lamentation before facing the gallows. That’s rather dark but lofty company for any modern music video to share.
It’s directed by Jake Wilganowski, and it’s starting to make the rounds, so have a look if you haven’t yet done so:
The spate of good national press continued for the Fort Worth-based duo, Pinkish Black, who were featured in a post on the metal section of Brooklyn Vegan today. Not only did they post two videos by the group (a live performance and a video for “Bodies in Tow”), they also premiered another song from their upcoming self-titled debut. Here’s the clip for “Bodies in Tow” which was released earlier in the week:
Finally, as a lot of local labels could tell you, simply getting a release reviewed on Pitchfork is no small task, as the website keeps a tight and mysterious curatorial lock on its dealings. As much as the site often infuriates its many, many observers, this is also the secret to its success. Once again, Pinkish Black’s new imprint, Handmade Birds, continues to attract attention and rather good reviews on its output, with the Pinkish Black track posted by the site last week being the most recent North Texas example.
But the Handmade Birds imprint puts out a wide variety of records from artists from all over the globe, and Finland’s Circle of Ouroborus is an admitted favorite of label-head R. Loren. Not only did Pitchfork give the group’s new record, The Lost Entrance of the Just, an unusually high score of “8.2,” it also called the label “a sterling new American outlet of weird.” That is extremely high praise for a Dallas-area imprint from such a famously compliment-stingy source.
