Ethel Cain – Perverts
Daughters of Cain – 2025
Drone, Atmospheric
Rated: ***
Ethel Cain is the alter ego for Hayden Silas Anhedönia. And those that heard her 2022 debut album Preachers Daughter know her story. Those who haven’t heard it, best get on that then, for it is a great album, we can give you the cliff notes, even though such a thing can never do her justice. But she grew up in America’s South. In a close community as a daughter to a southern Baptist deacon. As you can imagine, her family and community did not appreciate it fully that she first came out as gay and then as a transperson. Those scars and the fact the church made her come in contact with singing and piano sears every part of that first album. And to some extent, the new Perverts as well. She claims Perverts to be an EP, even though it lasts for almost one and a half hour. And that is no easy listening, for as the title already suggests, the record deals with perversion in many shapes and forms, noises and sounds. Drone by default and constant ambient atmospherics. Like a dripping transfusion, the overall compositions wreak havoc on your stability, shivers running up your spine and as the background noises become the gothic static in your blood, the album becomes ever more bewildering and chilling. A sensory overload, this is white noise that will soothe a handful and bring other minds towards the end of their tether. It’s a lot and a lot to endure when you are not a pervert yourself. But on those tracks she uses her voice more, you get to glimpse the brilliance that resides there. Like Punish or Vacillator, and those make all of it worth it… Even though you will have to lie down beside Ethel Cain to even try to come to grips with Perverts. And it will surely take you some time to recover, before you can get up again…
(Written by JK)
