An astonishingly intense, beautiful but at times disturbing journey into the heart of extreme Christian faith by Kristin Hayter who explores puritanism via relocation to rural Pennsylvania, expressed through the prism of piano, organ, Appalachian strings, drone, and above all, her extraordinary voice. This feels like an analogue hellfire and brimstone parallel to Gazelle Twin’s Pastoral album of 2018, reaching into the past and pulling it torturously into the present. The vocal harmonies on each track, from opener The Order Of Spiritual Virgins with its frightening string clanging to shouting, violent anger and supplication on I Who Bend The Tall Grasses also seeps into Bulgarian beauty. This is psalmic avant-garde, dulcimer and organ, harsh isolation, agony and ecstasy. The entire album adds up to one of the most extreme but brilliant works of the year so far, filled with strange voices, whispers and emotional peaks and troughs, with cornerstone track Pennsylvannia Furnace, despite its title being one of the most beautiful and transcendant. Hayter never does things by halves. One of the most fascinating artists around at the moment, this is a more than worthy follow-up to her previous, 2019’sLP Caligula, which mixed classical music with industrial, metal and noise to create so-called survivor anthems of vengeance and rage to express her own experiences of abuse. Again she plays with the edge and like the track here, Many Hands, we can hear knives sharpening along with the twanging of strings and vocal cords. Out on Sargent House.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Feel free to recommend more new albums and comment below. You can also use the contact page, or find more on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: