Band: Hillhaven
Song: “Dead Doesn’t Hurt”
Director: Chris Kelly
Album: Dead Doesn’t Hurt – single
Release Date: May 28th, 2026
Label: Self-released
Purchase/Stream:
Vocalist Christ Kelly comments:
“‘Dead Doesn’t Hurt’ came from a series of conversations I had with a close friend, who’d recently endured a pretty nasty betrayal. Several emotional parallels were drawn between loss through betrayal and loss through death, both of which effectively share the same five ‘stages.’ The one stage in which the two seem to differ the most is Stage 2: Anger. In cases of betrayal, it can often feel as though it would be easier if the person who’d hurt you were dead; not out of a lust for violence, but due to the simple fact that the person who’d once been a source of comfort has not disappeared, but instead become the source of your greatest pain.
There can be no solace through celebrating fond memories or shared sentiments of being ‘in a better place.’ All you’ve got is the hurt and, in your darkest moments, the only thing you wish for is for them to feel the same pain. It is this feeling, through my own experience and observing that of others, which gave birth to the lyrical hook: No one ever prays for bloodshed / But one of these days, it’ll be your turn / To live a life that’s haunted / To watch your love become a curse / You are my parasite / I don’t want you dead, ’cause ‘Dead Doesn’t Hurt’.“
