Chelsea Wolfe Wanders a Desert Purgatory in Her “Deranged for Rock & Roll” Video

Chelsea Wolfe never fails to bring a resonant darkness into whatever situation she enters. In the video for the gothic singer-songwriter’s latest single, “Deranged for Rock & Roll,” she floats through a western ghost town like a curse, singing a song as ominous as it is alluring.

“Deranged for Rock & Roll” follows suit with the other singles it joins for Wolfe’s forthcoming record, Birth of Violence, showing an apparent step in the direction of subtlety. Gone are the nightmarish riffs and howls of 2017’s Hiss Spun, and replacing them is something that’s closer to folk than metal.

The main component of Wolfe’s new sound is the acoustic guitar, which she carries with her through the video for “Deranged for Rock & Roll.” While the song begins with light strumming under Wolfe’s reverb-tinged voice, a swelling of feedback opens the song up into a slow, dark ballad. The video gives us glances of a half-deserted town, with all of those who live there lost in their own worlds. A priest sweeps the ground, unaware of the couple standing at his chapel. Meanwhile, Wolfe plays to a darkened saloon.

Wolfe describes her character in the video as “destined to sing the same song over and over in this purgatory of a desert bar, while different people come through the town and begin to feel the pull as well.”

While there’s no shortage of artists claiming rock music as their savior, Wolfe twists this cliché to characterize rock as a bewitching force, one drawing her toward the darkness that pervades her songwriting—even when it’s been stripped down to an acoustic guitar. At the end of the song, she utters the devotional line, “I am yours and you are mine.”