Alesana - The Thespian Music Video, The Emptiness dissected and digested

I am here to tell you a story. A story that will torture your thoughts by day and poison your dreams by night.

Post-hardcore band Alesana from North California recently released a video for one of my personal favorites, The Thespian from their latest The Emptiness album, released earlier this year (2010). Acknowledging that this blog wasn't up yet to review that awesome album, I bring news of the video and the idea that inspired it.

But first, The Thespian; i just love this. enjoy.




Now most of you who are fans of post-hardcore music like me will certainly agree that this band is awesome and The Thespian certainly kicks ass.

The whole dark theme for the video was actually based on the whole album itself. The Emptiness was written with a story and plot that runs through the album. This album would certainly be a joy/pain to review considering the amount of creative depth of ideas in the production leading up to the release. Well, to my understanding the album (and various sources on the internet) revolves around three characters The Artist, The Thespian and Annabel Lee, the latter being the protagonist which sets the album in its direction. The idea, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's macabre poem entitled Annabel Lee, eerily depicting love and death, transcribed and digested to form a darkly tuned, hauntingly enjoyable album.

The three main characters, brought to life in the video by the band members depicts The Artist, a man who is in love with the beautiful Annabel Lee and The Thespian a darkly portrayed character, the man who apparently, is responsible for Annabel Lee's death. The story is intriguingly intriguing, numerous conclusions can be made but who better to tell the story behind the video and the album than Alesana themselves;

"As the sun sets, the Artist cannot seem to escape his own imagination. Completely lost in self-indulgence, he begins to see Annabel's face everywhere. The visions of her usher his wandering, delusional thoughts back to the day when he first fell in love with her. He soon becomes obsessed with the fantasy that she could possibly still be alive. The Artist scrambles home in a hastened fury only to be stopped dead in his tracks at his front porch by a man who introduces himself as the Thespian--the man who killed Annabel." -Alesana   

  

I really think it is amazing that the band manages to tell such an enigmatic story in the form of The Emptiness. The band musically tells the story in such emotions surpassed only by visually adding to the experience. Well here's news, apparently the band is planning to produce a movie based on the story of Annabel Lee. Let's hope that they do. It would be a sight to watch the band play the album in its entirety while the movie plays in the background, don't you think?

"The Emptiness Will Haunt You"

You might want to check out:

• Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee poem

• Alesana's official Website