Both band (The Angelus) and label (Tofu Carnage) use words such as “bleak,” “pretty,” and “heavy” to describe their separate aesthetics, but it is very apt for There Will Be No Peace. And though the idea of bleak, heavy music is promising, and perhaps even inspiring, in 2017, TWBNP does present a glimmer of hope. You wouldn’t know it from the opening trio of songs. Even “It Descends” posits that it is better to run away from the fight because it’s an uphill battle. Perhaps it explains the yellow of the album; the backbone of some, the streak running down the leg, or the sweat stains from the under arms. It all sounds so defeatist. Yet as the album progresses, the spirit of TWBNP lightens up even if the music of The Angelus does not. “The Other Side of the Mountain” talks about hanging a dream from the mountain for all to see. All of this is sad without so much as a breath between songs, just between sides. Removed from the harrowing tale within, TWBNP is an epic in the style of Homer. A poem telling of the run away from evil, before regaining hope, conjuring up the strength and the numbers, and overcoming. But it also delivers the outcome: in the battle against evil, there is unrest. There is always another boogeyman-in-waiting; and often, to beat the monster you must become the monster. It’s why the dove has been cut from the album’s cover — it is nowhere to be found in this saga. And maybe that is the message many of us need to hear as we gather in marches across this globe to combat the evils hiding in all manner of shadows. We may be working toward peace, but it will always be but a dream flung high atop a mountain peak that we’ll never quite reach but always see.
More about: The Angelus
