After their deaths on the surface of Venus, the crew of the Venusian 2 find themselves in the depths of Hell, where Satan himself gives them a proposition to enter the “rats’ nest.” In the end they take up the offer and fifteen soldiers “infest” the nest — entering a fiery afterlife. The number fifteen may not have been picked at random, as Infest the Rats’ Nest was the band’s fifteenth studio album. Stu would summarize both the song and the album as a whole in an interview for New Noise Magazine. “We are fucked. You are fucked. You are going to hell, and hell is on the surface of Venus, and it’s not fun.” King Gizzard has written about Satan before (see Nonagon Infinity and I’m In Your Mind Fuzz), and “Hell” is the nightmarish final confrontation with him, although maybe also the beginning of another story based on vengeance. With blaring guitars, a fast tempo and an outro that remains a fan favorite all these years later, “Hell” is a perfect closer to Infest the Rats’ Nest.
Early versions of the song were included in the documentary RATTY where the band jams the outro section at a slower pace, making a “doom metal” version. Recording sessions for the “hell” chants are also included in the film. The final studio version was played by Stu (vocals/bass/guitar), Joey (guitar/backing vocals), Cavs (drums/backing vocals), Cook (guitar/backing vocals), Ambrose (harmonica/backing vocals) and Eric (backing vocals). Before the release of Infest the Rats’ Nest, clips of the sound would be reversed and spliced to create a new track called “Evil Star.” First appearing in a teaser video for the album uploaded on June 18th, 2019, it would later be used throughout the year as intro music for their shows. “Hell” was released as part of Infest the Rats’ Nest on August 16th, 2019.
“Hell” debuted on 2019-06-26 at Howler in Naarm (Melbourne) during a surprise show. Like the rest of Infest the Rats’ Nest, it would be heavily played throughout the year with a performance from 2019-10-15 making it into the tour film Chunky Shrapnel. In 2020 the song was played a few times before the COVID-19 lockdown, returning to sets on 2021-07-25 for the Splendour XR online festival. Since then it has remained in the band’s setlist with no major changes.