HMLTD explore feudalism and medieval life in new video for ‘The End Is Now’
The new video was inspired by the work of Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky, frontman Henry Spychalski tells Rolling Stone UK.
By Nick Reilly
HMLTD have shared the unsettling new video for ‘The End Is Now’, the latest track to emerge from the London art rockers.
The new effort is the most recent track from their upcoming second album The Worm and comes accompanied by a video which reflects the album’s sprawling concept of life in a relentless feudal medieval society ruled by a worm god.
The black and white clip is directed by singer Henry Spychalski and shows a young child attempting to escape the clutches of a villainous braying mob. It’s later interspersed with footage of the child as a grown man – which is Spychalski performing in an Arthurian-esque get up.
“The video for ‘The End Is Now’ gives a further glimpse into the expansive lore that we have built around ‘The Worm’, in which England has been swallowed by a giant Worm God and renamed Wyrmlands,” Spychalski told Rolling Stone UK.
“Set in Wyrmlands, the video acts as an origin story for the album’s hero – a fictionalised version of myself – and introduces key characters from the world: the surviving population forced into famine and feudalism after ‘The Swallowing’, the treacherous ‘Devertebrate’ nobles who rule over them (so named for having had their spines removed as an obsequious gesture to the Worm King), and the ‘Wormdom’ clergy – the new faith that emerges after The Swallowing.
“Visually, the video was inspired by the films of Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky, and Václav Marhoul’s film ‘The Painted Bird.’”
The band’s second album arrives on April 7 and was created over the course of two years with an expansive cast of 47 musicians – including a gospel choir and a 16-piece string orchestra.
They will also play two shows at London’s ICA on May 18 & 19.