[1][2][3][4] In a statement, Perry said that the song "is about defeat; it depicts the part of the Icarus story after he descends into the sea" and that it "explores this feeling of despair and powerlessness.

"[3] Per BroadwayWorld's Michael Major, "Hell Is Here" "draws from certain aesthetics of black metal with synths that evolve into warped guitars and Sarah's screams echoing powerfully through the track."

Major writes that Perry "wrote the lyrics during a dark period in her life, harnessing the feelings of the remote reality she was stuck in.

"[2] The Fader's Raphael Helfand notes that on the song, Perry is "alternately tranquil and possessed, balancing her bubbly KKB persona with something far more sinister."

Walton's post-industrial production "takes the track into even trippier territory" with an instrumental which "seethes like an [sic] wounded beast beneath the demonic bits and gurgles out its dying breaths during the angelic ones, only to rise from the ashes angrier than ever each time the chorus returns.