Today, Ontario-based singer-songwriter Ellis (whose real name is Linnea Siggelkow) previews her new EP, Nothing Is Sacred Anymore, with the lilting new song and video for “Hell.” The song features vocals from her real-life partner, Chastity (Brandon Williams). “We walked in circles around the cemetery, playing Truth Or Dare,” Ellis sings. “And you asked me if I think it’s scary — must get pretty dark down there.”
In the video, Ellis is in a church parking lot, pulling a cart with a bag that appears to be leaking blood (but is too small to be a body bag). Williams is waiting for her, first digging a grave in a cemetery, then down by a river where, together, they set the cart on fire and hover over the flames.
In a statement, Siggelkow explained the song is about contemplating the afterlife. “I think the concept of Hell in a traditional sense is very strange,” Siggelkow said. “Thinking about it as a place that exists in the afterlife feels like it discounts all the real and sh*tty things that people endure in this lifetime. Hell exists on Earth, we see it all the time. I like to think that death isn’t the gateway to ell, it’s some kind of freedom from it.”
Nothing Is Sacred Anymore follows Siggelkow’s acclaimed debut album, Born Again, which also dealt with intimate reflections on death and her religious upbringing.
Listen to Ellis’ “Hell” above and revisit her other previously released tracks from the EP, “Hospital” and “What If Love Isn’t Enough.”
Nothing Is Sacred Anymore is out 6/25. Pre-order it here.