The golden fields of summer burn brightly as ethereal frightener Lingua Ignota makes her rounds in glorious, sweeping motion. Chilling in a way unlike her albums released in years prior, “SINNER GET READY” is a somewhat familiar, but terribly haunting collection of stripped down mourners, and it truly seems to be ever so haunting because of its bareness. Removing a large majority of the harsh vocals Kristin Hayter has once cracked the skies open with, these 9 tracks prominently feature an operatic voice that deafens and terrifies all the same. “SINNER GET READY” is rife with imagery of Pennsylvania countryside, underground fires, and small, biblical towns, and it features a spiritual sound to match.
Opener, “THE ORDER OF SPIRITUAL VIRGINS,” buzzes to life with gentle piano and rolling layers of voices crying out, “Hide your children, hide your husband.” From there we are presented with “I WHO BEND THE TALL GRASSES.” Here, weeping vocals bend over one another, creating a sorrowful downfall of dejected tones warbling in and out as distorted church organs pierce the air. “MANY HANDS” begins with electronic cicadas opening up a rehashed version of words listeners are very well familiar with. Buzzing strings and buzzsaw scrapings bounce underneath folk-like rounds of lyrics.
“REPENT NOW CONFESS NOW” features flavourful plucking’s of banjo and spiritual vocalizations that force the palms upward toward the heavens. The next track, “THE SACRED LINAMENT OF JUDGEMENT,” sounds like unearthed hymnals that have picked up in an industrial era. I am unsure if “drone-folk” is an already existing genre, but I feel as though this song could be labelled as such. “PERPETUAL FLAME OF CENTRALIA” sees Hayter using the phenomenon occurring beneath the surface of Centralia – the continuously burning fires serve as a reminder that hell is on earth. She sings, “Life is a song, a song, and the raging fires of hell burn long.” Track eight, “MAN IS LIKE A SPRING FLOWER,” is rich with storytelling through its sound. Floaty piano, twangy strings, and a pile of ladies wailing out about the least favourable organ. Hayter warbles, “The heart of man is the seventh gate of hell.” The album ends with “THE SOLITARY BRETHREN OF EPHRATA” shuffles in with a slow and sinister gait. “Ugliness my home, loneliness my master,” Hayter sings. The sorrow drones on and on.
If you are in the mood for something painfully devastating but somehow sweetly gentle all the same, “SINNER GET READY” is the album for you.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Metal Wanderlust 