Hellgrammites Releases Claustrophobic New Music Video Ahead of Free Halloween Show

Inspired by a recurring nightmare stemming from the unsettling television series Dexter, local cinematographer and gaffer Troy Ten Eyck illustrated his deep-seated fear of being constricted and trapped inside a cocoon of cellophane in the latest music video for his band, Hellgrammites.

“I always got really uncomfortable and creeped out by the thought of being wrapped in cellophane. Dexter would cover his room in plastic before he would do his deed, then he would wrap his victims up in cellophane,” the bassist explains.

“It was this whole weird, creepy thing. I remember having a dream about being wrapped in cellophane. I thought it would be a really cool, uncomfortable video for people to watch, like a what-the-fuck-did-I-just-watch sort of thing," he continues. "What would someone go through mentally?”

The musical horror short for “CXL” dropped on October 23, in advance of the group’s free Halloween show at Clancy’s Irish Pub in Wheat Ridge on Friday, October 27. Skulls (a Misfits tribute), Suicide Cages and Ignorant Bliss are also on the bill.
Shot last month in guitarist Lehi Petersen’s backyard during a three-hour window as dusk fell, the suffocating music video is spastic and chaotic in capturing Hellgrammites in all its genre-hopping glory. With the members dressed as morbid mummies, it’s the perfect visual companion and representation of the group’s discordant post-hardcore tunes.

“It was fun,” says Ten Eyck, adding that narrative music videos are the main reason that he got involved in the film industry fourteen years ago. “We always try to have fun with the videos and think outside the box.”

Vocalist Erik Petersen, Ten Eyck and Lehi's cousin, was the first member to be wrapped in plastic from head to toe. “It was actually freezing, dude. It was really cold,” he recalls. “All that water dripping on us and then the night falling. … I was shaking.”

“It was very windy, too,” Ten Eyck adds. He even considered shutting down the shoot at one point. “Then we had a sprinkler just shooting straight up in the air, so when it fell, it looked like rain.”

But the four-piece pushed through the weather conditions, and when the time came to destroy their instruments during the video’s crescendo, the camera caught genuine fury and frustration. The waning shot focuses on both Lehi’s broken resonator guitar and Ten Eyck’s discarded Rickenbacker bass face down in the mud.

The third music video connected to last year’s I Am Omega LP, “CXL” was the first production “that didn’t go over budget,” drummer Bill Jenkins shares.

While most of Erik’s lyrics on the band’s debut album address his personal journey to sobriety (he’s approaching five alcohol-free years), “CXL” is a more philosophical take on the human condition. “Human beings are obviously mammals, but we’re highly evolved mammals. Basically, it’s comparing us to animals in their primal form,” he explains, adding, “There are positive notes and negative notes” throughout the song.

“It’s talking about pheromones, feeding patterns and stuff like that,” he continues, “comparing us to animals, which we really, truly are.”

But Hellgrammites is actually named after an insect, particularly the aquatic-dwelling larvae of dobsonflies. “Our grandmother used to call us grandkids hellgrammites,” says Erik.

Similar to their namesake, the bandmates believe their sound evolved on the latest release, which was the first to use Jenkins on drums. “We’ve really found what we’re comfortable in and streamlined our sound,” Lehi says. “We’ve gotten a distinct, cohesive sound now that we’re proud of.”

The alt-rockers of Quicksand are the band’s biggest influence, Erik says, and Hellgrammites opened for the New York City group during a show at the Bluebird Theater, even though “we don’t sound anything like Quicksand.”

Hellgrammites is more reminiscent of early-2000s post-hardcore acts such as the Dillinger Escape Plan and Every Time I Die more than anything, given the metallic hardcore and unorthodox song structures. “Yeah, we get that a lot,” Erik says of the comparison.

With studio time booked at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins for the beginning of next year, Hellgrammites will be done playing live and filming after this month’s show to focus on new music. But they will tease the upcoming material at Clancy’s by premiering a fresh song live, according to Jenkins.

“Bill and I have a Halloween tradition: Whenever we play shows, we do a couple’s costume,” Lehi adds. “We’ve been Cheech & Chong. We have something coming up for this one that’s going to be fun as well.

“We’re going to be Bert and Ernie,” he quickly spills.

“Yeah, did we decide who’s going to be Bert and who’s going to be Ernie?” Jenkins asks.

As of press time, they hadn’t, so you’ll just have to go to the Halloween show to find out.

Also be prepared for an all-out auditory assault.

“We’re all about our live show,” Lehi says. “Post-hardcore music is meant to be seen live.”

Erik agrees: “I like to get in people’s faces.”

Hellgrammites, 8 p.m. Friday, October 27, Clancy's Irish Pub, 7000 West 38th Avenue.