By Spencer Ostrowsky
Lingua Ignota, also known as Kristin Hayter’s, music is not easy to listen to.
The sheer rawness and passion pulls no punches and pummels you in the most sickening and enjoyable way possible.
Hayter is classically trained in music, and earned an MFA at Brown University, where her thesis was a 10,000 page document compiled of articles, message boards, and testimonials of misogyny in extreme music.
The document also contained police reports and personal testimonials of abusive relationships that she was a part of in her past.
“Caligula”, her sophomore effort, takes the trauma and pain that has plagued her life, and exposes it all to the listener like a fresh wound. The opening track “FAITHFUL SERVANT FRIEND OF CHRIST” starts gentle but haunting, both serving as a foundation and a warning for the trauma to come.
The swirling noise of cellos and soft pianos give way to the ferocious “DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR” which will leave any listener with chills of guilt and fear running down their spine.
Thus begins the rollercoaster of emotions that Lingua Ignota is at the forefront of. From the wailing pessimism of “MAY FAILURE BE YOUR NOOSE” to the pleading of “IF THE POISON DOESN’T TAKE YOU MY DOGS WILL,” Caligula is an album that may leave you in a shaking puddle of tears in your bed, but after the experience is over and you have time to take it all in, you will find the experience like nothing you have ever experienced before.
Where to go next: Pharmakon-Contact, Prurient-Frozen Niagra Falls, Uboa-The Origin of my Depression
