In coordination with the Worm Moon, London collective HMLTD have today shared ‘The End Is Now’ and its accompanying video, the second single to be taken from their ambitious second album The Worm, due Friday 7th April via Lucky Number.
Continuing a push in sonic experimentation, ‘The End Is Now’ combines 70’s soul with English folk to set the scene for The Worm, evoking the apocalyptic zeitgeist of the 21st Century and a generation’s psychological terror at the threat of world-ending climate change.
"'The End Is Now' tells of how the titular Worm was finally awoken by hydraulic fracking of the English countryside, and swallows England whole," explains frontman Henry Spychalski. "The Worm here is both a metaphor for capitalist greed, and the embodiment of a whole generation's anxiety, dread and fear in the face of ever-looming apocalypse and world-ending natural disasters."
Directed by Spychalski, the accompanying video for ‘The End is Now’ was visually inspired by the films of Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Václav Marhoul's film 'The Painted Bird' and acts as an origin story for the album’s hero.
The new cut follows ‘Wyrmlands’ in affirming HMLTD as one of the UK’s most ambitious and creative talents. Created over the course of two years with a cast of 47 musicians – including a gospel choir and a 16-piece string orchestra – the collective’s second full-length The Worm is less a concept album than a fully-fledged musical universe, transcending genre and medium.
Set in a disorienting anachronistic version of Medieval England – as steeped in dystopian sci-fi fantasy as it is folklore and Old English mythology – it’s part political polemic, part deeply moving psychological journey.
In contrast to their debut album, the acclaimed 2020 release West of Eden, which explored toxic masculinity and the breakdown of Western society, The Worm is framed as a spiritual quest within a delusion. In that delusion, Spychalski’s shadow self is projected and embodied as a giant worm that swallows England, and which must be slain in order to achieve salvation. The concept came to him in a fever dream back in 2020, before being fully fleshed out with the band’s recording line-up of Sarantaris (drums), Peterman (guitar/production), Evans (keys) and Mohnblatt (bass).
By conjuring a parable of human struggle and salvation – of a society impotent and festering inside the intestines of a giant parasite – HMLTD visualise capitalist realism and spiritual alienation as a mythological beast. With its hopeful resolution, this utterly unique exercise in world-building might just help inspire alternative realities, or at least offer a spiritual crutch to all of us within this one.
HMLTD will play two live shows at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts on Thursday 18th & Friday 19th May. For tickets, see below.
The Worm tracklisting:
1 - Worm’s Dream
2 - Wyrmlands
3 - The End Is Now
4 - Days
5 - Saddest Worm Ever
6 - Liverpool Street
7 - The Worm
8 - Past Life (Sinnerman’s Song)
9 - Lay Me Down
HMLTD live dates:
18th May - Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
19th May - Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
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