If there is a band that has consistently made it their business to deliver the unexpected, that band has to be HMLTD. From their very inception, the London outfit - at times more art collective than mere band - has made it a habit to surprise fans and critics alike by taking sharp turns into unknown directions, consistently breaking out of whatever box people attempt to put them into. They’ve taken their time doing it, too: they have become famous (or infamous?) for delivering live shows that are few and far between, but are also true concept-based productions that defy the definition of live gig by standing with at least one foot solidly planted in the field of performance art. Their last record, ‘The Worm’, was equal parts concept album and dystopian epic, and would probably have deserved a stage adaptation as a full-blown musical. Its release was, instead, followed by a long period of silence. In the world of content consumption, where the production of art has to be fast and furious or else one risks oblivion, this was a gamble. Know this band well enough, though, and you would have been sure that something was smouldering under the ashes.

That something was, apparently, a brand new direction the band is calling “Götherdämmerung”: Wagnerian reference, one must assume, fully deliberate. The band, now with an updated line-up, presents it as a “call to Gothic insurrection”, an attempt to “resurrect the ghosts modernity attempted to bury [...] as weapons to confront the New Demons”. It is not merely an aesthetic statement: this is a very political band in an articulate, decadent way, and this is a defiant challenge not only against trends in contemporary music, but also against so many of the driving forces in today’s pop culture. From a band that has always curated every aspect of their presentation and release to near-maniacal levels, nothing less could be expected.

The first taste of this is brand-new single (and accompanying music video: the visuals are always an integral part of HMLTD releases) ‘Blitzkrieg’, and it is a tantalising one. It is, intriguingly, not something completely new: there is something in its structure, in the delivery of at least part of the vocals, in its noisenik tendencies, that goes all the way back to the band’s very first singles, first and foremost ‘Stained’, of which some parts of this track feel almost like a direct reprise. But there is also so much more to it, including an inspired (or demented?) mingling of things that should not, on paper, go well together: this may possibly be the very first industrial goth-cum-gabba single ever delivered. There is a section in which the roughness of the vocals and pounding rhythm has a touch of Rammstein to it. There is a poetic, melancholy, extended piano part that feels like the lull in a storm. There is a relentlessness to all of it that would not be out of place at a late-night rave. Like much HMLTD music before it, it is built in movements, almost like a symphony, but made of sounds that very few classical composers would touch with a very long bargepole (although Alexander Skriabin might be proud). The lyrics are equally, beautifully left-field (what other band could deliver a line like “My soul is stuck in Kali Yuga” and then follow it shortly after with “Your Uber Rating’s only four point three”?) It feels, perhaps fittingly for a track so rave-adjacent, like an acid trip, but a beautiful one. 

HMLTD might be musical chameleons, but the one constant in their production is that whenever rules are set for how music should not be made, they go and break them all. This single very much does that, and it is exhilarating. They are soon taking it to the live stage at London’s Club Cheek, and whatever follows will no doubt take the whole alternative scene by storm.

Chiara Strazzulla

@cstrazzull

Image: ‘Blitzkrieg’ Official Single Cover

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