Don't sleep on Awaken The Empire -- not that they'd let you. The enigmatic L.A. alt-electro rockers (My Chem and Mayday Parade fans, take note) have been grinding relentlessly, beating out Owl City to score the top spot on the PureVolume charts this past May. And today, they're dropping film-nerd references all over your screen with their "Rise And Fall" video, a black-and-white effort that feels like a newly discovered pre-Technicolor film reel.

But this film's definitely not silent. The bracingly heavy track hits like Bane doing a number on Batman, which the quartet would probably approve of: If the band were a film, singer Damien Lawson says it'd be a cross between "Donnie Darko" and "Inception." But without the bunny masks.

Watch Awaken The Empire's "Rise And Fall" video after the jump.

"With the 'Rise And Fall' music video, we really wanted to capture the look of 1920s/'30s cinema like 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,' and 'Frankenstein,'" Lawson said. And that's exactly the kind of cinematic backdrop they created, blasting away in a postapocalyptic windstorm as the song swells and Lawson bellows, "Ready to take command, ready to stop this fight, ready to make my stand."

Awaken The Empire will head out on the Show Your True Colors tour with Eyes Set To Kill in August, tearing their way through the U.S. before returning to the band's Hollywood home turf for a show at the Roxy.

+ Watch Awaken The Empire's "Rise And Fall" video.