A different character with a commanding rhetoric, but fuelled by the same raw, passionate voice; interdisciplinary artist Kristin Hayter has returned with new music under an updated moniker. Formerly known as Lingua Ignota, she has now re-branded to Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter and shared the cathartic, startling track ‘All Of My Friends Are Going To Hell’.
Lifted from her upcoming album, SAVED!, which is set for release on 20th October via her own imprint Perpetual Flame Ministries, the song is an auspicious-yet-ominous offering that sees Rev. Hayter “rise” triumphantly from the place where they fell. Moving away from the trauma that underscored her previous works, including her acclaimed second album Sinner Get Ready (2021), Hayter’s new work focuses on healing. This emotional exorcism is at the core of SAVED!, which she worked on with long-time collaborator Seth Manchester.
Once again taking inspiration from Christian values – specifically the Pentecostal-Holiness Movement which dictates that one’s closeness to God is demonstrated through transcendental personal experience – Hayter uses her voice as a vessel for redemption, with ‘All Of My Friends Are Going To Hell’ forming her first potent sermon. Her sparse instrumentation allows her idiosyncratic vocal to remain the the centering force as she seeks salvation in direct, unrelenting fashion: “I’m getting up from the place where I fell / Lord please forgive me / I don’t want to be like my friends who are going to hell”.
Described as “an apocalyptic revelation on the complex, sometimes ugly, always nonlinear process of healing,” SAVED! looks set to be Hayter’s most unflinching, raw record to date. High-fidelity recordings of each song were committed to a 4-track recorder, then degraded in a series of small half-broken cassette players. This achieved the atmosphere of timeless decay that Hayter wanted, enhancing the power of her unusual pilgrimage further. ‘All Of My Friends Are Going To Hell’ is accompanied by a video that follows Hayter into a riverside baptism, and was filmed, directed & edited entirely by Hayter herself. Watch it below.
On Friday 13th and Saturday 14th October, Hayter will perform her final shows as Lingua Ignota in London as part of “Perpetual Flame v.2” with some very special guests across each show. Find out more and buy tickets here.
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Photo Credit: Rev. Herschel B. Rutherford
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