Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

PRAYER HANDS, WRAPPED AROUND A BURNING CROSS

This review will not suffice. Sinner Get Ready borders on magnum opus, the culminating point for Lingua Ignota's artistic career and her personal afflictions. It is consummate, traversing what we've experienced from her thus far - Neoclassical Darkwave marred by Death Industrial - and what she's endured to uncover more. It is excruciating given the backdrop, a concept so intrusive, the artistic ramifications couldn't have been anything less than sickening. She, a tormented soul whose abuse has never been reconciled by God, attempts to pervade Christianity by assimilation, only to emerge more disgusted, more appalled, more beaten than ever. Using the sounds of God - Chamber Music amidst the imperious surveillance of Christian Liturgical Music - once beautiful instruments take the shape of demons, twisted and gnarled, unforgiving and unrepenting. Even Ignota's towering voice, classically-trained for choral arrangements, fails to ascend above the clouds, repeatedly dragged down by the soulless inhabitants of Earth, disguised as loving, caring Christians. Their voices echo the confines of Sinner Get Ready, their stories of revulsion exist in reality, and not the fantasy of heaven.

It's through this lens that 'The Solitary Brethren Of Ephrata,' a closer that, on the surface, feels uplifting and metamorphic, unveils the true wickedness of religion. A voice, ignorant and assured, boasts of the power of Jesus' blood. Her grave sincerity crushes the euphoric climb of 'Man Is Like A Spring Flower,' featuring a flourish of Avant-Folk instrumentation meant to represent Ignota's one moment of potential exaltation. Annihilated by reality. A vexatious voice, intent on spreading a deadly disease to the community she vows to protect. All for what? As Hayter's ethereal voice dejectedly mourns, a "paradise that will be mine." A heaven after earth. A guarantee promised by those just as wicked (see: 'Man Is Like A Spring Flower's' opening sample), with no ramifications for their actions on our one - and only - plane of existence. It is vile. A reaction compounded by Ignota's subversion of Christian themes which, while present on All Bitches Die and Caligula, never stomached the ingratiation firsthand. Thus, she moved to Pennsylvania in order to.

Beyond Ephrata - a local commune with strong religious convictions - Hayter also explores her experience on 'Pennsylvania Furnace,' a gorgeous Singer/Songwriter dirge that parallels one's unquestioned faith with Jesus to the story of the Pennsylvania Dutch, wherein an iron-master sacrificed his dogs to a furnace, only to be dragged into Hell with them. Despite the beauty contained within her quiver, the subtle tonality shift offsetting the ease, Hayter's tale of earthly evil and fiery retribution leaves a lasting mark. As does basically every song here. Only 'Repent Now Confess Now,' which has some slight comparisons to modern American Primitivism like Cerberus Shoal, and 'Perpetual Flame Of Centralia,' which suffers under the weight of 'Pennsylvania Furnace's' grand elegy, struggle to identify themselves amongst other, loftier achievements. Such as is the case with 'I Who Bend The Tall Grasses' and 'Many Hands.' On the former, Hayter sends forward a visceral sermon with thespian magnetism. As the organ trails endlessly behind her, one envisions an exorcism on the grounds of the Salem witch trials. With its variety and distinct provocation, it's likely her best all-around vocal performance to date. On 'Many Hands' however, a swelling of Avant-Folk instrumentation takes center stage. It brings parallels to Alexis Marshall's recently-released House Of Lull . House Of When, on account of the Industrial-tinged desultory state. Take 'It Just Doesn't Feel Good Anymore' as an example, a song Lingua Ignota herself was featured on. The bleared nature provides a constant, paralyzing sense of unease.

Is Sinner Get Ready Ignota's greatest achievement? In all likelihood yes, though I am partial to All Bitches Die for the stunted numbness it put me in upon first listen. Needless to say, both are modern day classics from a mind warped by factors aplenty. To interchange Death Industrial's shock n' awe tactics with the dismaying anguish of reality is no small feat. To transition as gracefully as Hayter has, extending the importance of her career in the process, deserves commendation. Though, for her sake, rest and respite would be best.