Lingua Ignota – “Sinner Get Ready” (Rezension) – ByteFM

Lingua Ignota – “Sinner Get Ready” (Sargent House)

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Kristen Hayter’s music is not fun. It’s as dangerous as music can be. If one could describe the American artist, who has performed under the name Lingua Ignota for five years, in one word, she would probably be “relentless”. She has been since the beginning of her career. As an art college master’s thesis, she submitted a 10,000-page autobiographical manuscript on misogyny, abuse, and anorexia. Why 10,000 pages? When you print this manuscript, it weighs as much as the Haiter itself, and Lingua Ignota goes exactly where it hurts.

Their music sounds accordingly. Lingua Ignota’s two previous LPs, “All Bitches Die” from 2017 and “Caligula” from 2019, were a haunting mix of pop music’s most extreme styles: crunchy noises, black metal screams, and industrial explosions. In stark contrast to other artists such as Farmacon or Merzebo, pianist and vocalist Hayter combined this bad music with choral and baroque chords. There was an incredible force in this mixture of beauty and devastation – which of course also required a lot of strength from the listeners. Describing Caligula as “not easily accessible” is an extreme understatement. This uncompromising art requires absolute dedication from the audience. Only then does it reveal its power.

Martialischer Folk

Hayter hasn’t made access to that power any easier than with her latest album, “Sinner Get Ready.” The third LP is a little miracle: it’s a popular album. Lingua Ignota replaces harsh noises with piano songs, and the black metal of popular instruments like violin, banjo or acoustic guitar. The wonderful and terrifying world of Kristen Hayter seems a little inviting for the first time.

But one thing beware, dear sinner: this music has not lost its intensity. “The Order Of Spiritual Virgins” opens the album beautifully, with gentle piano chords and pathos vocal harmony. But less than four minutes pass before Hayter strikes the deepest keys of the piano with a martial ruthlessness. In “Man Is Like A Spring Flower,” the banjo and violin move in an endless whirl – the score feels like seven minutes of free fall. “Many Hands” is technically an acoustic guitar song, the instrument being played only by the force of a hammer strike – and the beat is out of tune. Hayter has not given up on noise, it is now produced with acoustic instruments.

relentlessly real

The most powerful tool in “Sinner Get Ready” is audio. On this album, Hayter shows off her almost incredible control over her member. This is illustrated by two examples. There’s “Pennsylvania Furnace,” the first minimally ranked single. Hayter sings lines like “All I’ve learned is that everything burns” very tenderly. bestowed amidst the folkloric songs of Hell”Pennsylvania oven“Relax for five minutes. It is the eye of the storm.

Then there is the second song, “I Bend the Tall Grass,” in which you cry out to the Almighty to the sounds of the sacred organ. Not out of religious desperation, but with a clear intent: the one who offended them must die. She begins by saying “Use any of your heavenly means/your golden scythe, your holy sword.” What at first glance seems like a quick prayer turns out not to be a cry for help, but an order. “I don’t care, just kill him/You have to do, I don’t ask.” When Hayter screams, it doesn’t sound like a musical instrument, not a show. Then the bone marrow begins to freeze and the ground shakes. In these moments, Lingua Ignota shows just how empty the music of all the “dark” metal boys actually is. The hell Kristen Hayter sings about is no fun. It is relentlessly real.

Release: August 6, 2021
Label: Sargent House