Music Video: “Hallowed Ground” by The Hold-Up

The Hold-Up have become one of my favorite Delaware bands, not least of all because they work zombies into their songs a lot. And, you know, Delaware and zombies go together — Slaughter Beach was practically a character in “Survival of the Dead.” It wasn’t actually filmed there, but we’ll take what we can get. When I first heard “Hallowed Ground,” with its “RISE UP!” chorus, my mind filled with images of the undead — and I was pleased to later learn that not only was that an accurate interpretation, but they’d also made a Romero-esque video for it.

Video details: “Hallowed Ground,” music and lyrics by Jason Webb. Directed
and produced by Devin Zito. Make-up by Jason Webb.

Here’s what songwriter Jason Webb says about the song, the band, and the
upcoming EP (and comic book!):

“I’m a huge fan of Zombie Horror, I’ve always loved how Director’s like
George Romero and Sam Raimi have been able to convey horror along side a
campy sense of humor. I started writing ‘Hallowed Ground’ while acting in
the stage production of *Evil Dead: The Musical*. I really wanted a song
that has that kind of rootsy southern feel but manages to give off a kind of
‘Zombie Unity’ with the chorus being ‘RISE UP!’

“As a band, The Hold-Up has gotten its start with at least five songs based off of horror films. ‘Big Bad,’ based on *The Wolfman*; ‘Zombies at My Neighbors’; and ‘Vampyr Blues.’ This song actually was written by a friend and fellow musician, Jimmy Dukenfield of New Sweden.

He recalls writing a new song for the first time in a few weeks and then stopping half-way through and saying to himself: ‘Wait a second, I’m writing a Hold-Up song!’ So we’ve gotten ourselves sort of set on horror Songs. But we do write normal stuff occasionally, and some of those songs will be featured on our debut ep due out in July. We plan on releasing it on both CD and vinyl accompanied by a one shot horror comic of the same name, drawn up by my brother, illustrator and writer Blair Webb, who publishes an independent book called *Ghostman*.”

The Hold-Up play often. If you find yourself in Northern Delaware, check them out!