How to Destroy Angels: An Omen EP (Columbia, 11/13/12)
Four people sit in a cabin on the seashore, with light coming in through one window and hastily nailed boards over the other apertures. A greenish glow, the only hint of electricity, comes from an instrument that has an opaque purpose. Everyone seems to be waiting for something.
“Ice Age,” the new video from How to Destroy Angels’ An Omen EP, directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road, Lawless), is a bleak affair. Minimalist at first, both in scope and music,the song soon makes it clear that time is running out.
Mariqueen Maandig, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Rob Sheridan hide in the cabin, offering the string-plucked “Ice Age” as an ode to the end. As digital noise fades in, the band watches the ocean freeze, frost creep toward the door, and darkness consume humanity on a flickering television screen.