LISTEN: Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter – ‘All Of My Friends Are Going To Hell’

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.

Follow Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter on
bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter (X), Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Rev. Herschel B. Rutherford

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

ALBUM: Lingua Ignota – ‘SINNER GET READY’

“And all that I’ve learned / is everything burns” laments Lingua Ignota aka Kristin Hayter on ‘Pennsylvania Furnace’, the fourth track on her latest album SINNER GET READY – an apt sentiment for a record that blazes with a unique orchestral agony.

Released via Sargent House, Hayter’s fourth full length offering is an emotional exorcism inspired by the severe brand of Christianity in rural Pennsylvania where she currently lives. Its strictness permeates her vision to the core; her lyrics, majestic hymn-like instrumentation and gothic aesthetic smoulder with a righteous thirst that can only be sated by the blood of Jesus – a recurring lyrical and visual motif on the album.

Whilst it’s clear that Hayter has made a distinct departure from the furious, visceral sounds of CALIGULA, her sensational vocals are still the lifeblood of SINNER GET READY. She uses her voice to devastating effect, harrowing up the soul with her effortless ability to switch from a soft, divine cry to a cord-ripping, desperate plea. She is like a one woman version of the chorus of ancient furies that saturate Greek mythology; Medea-like in her repulsion, relentless in the revenge she reeks upon the souls who cross her path.

From the unsettling, majestic keys of epic opener ‘The Order Of Spiritual Virgins’ on which she warns “Hide your children / hide your husband / I am relentless / I am incessant / I am the ocean” to the theatrical, cathedral-worthy organ on ‘I Who Bend The Tall Grasses’, Hayter’s furious summons often give the impression of a preacher who has lost their way. Her guttural, spitefully shouted lyrics “I don’t give a fuck / just kill him / you have to / I’m not asking” on the latter are matched by the violent imagery on ‘Repent Now Confess Now’ – “He will knock the breath from you / he will ram your eyes with glass” – all culminating to create a palpable sense of dread.

A vessel for exposing rage, hypocrisy and suffering; Hayter leaves no stone unturned. She blends self and social flagellation together effortlessly on three tracks that centre around the questionable sincerity of disgraced American Evangelist TV Preacher Jimmy Swaggart. The audio of his televised confession is layered over the instrumentation at the end of ‘The Sacred Linament Of Judgment’, featuring his “blood of Jesus'” remark which Hayter then uses as a lyrical backbone for the sombre ‘Perpetual Flame Of Centralia’. It’s bookended with ‘Man Is Like A Spring Flower’, which opens with the audio of an interview with the prostitute who brought Swaggart’s indiscretions to the surface, embellished by Hayter’s potent, destructive lyric “The heart of man is a furnace.”

With her archaic song titles, immersion into Christian iconography and distinctive vocal delivery, Hayter invites her listeners to dwell in the chaotic, divine abyss on SINNER GET READY. “Do you want to be / in hell with me?” she asks – if hell sounds like this, we’ll gladly walk into the flames. Even without a full understanding of the album’s religious context, SINNER GET READY provides a profound emotional release.

Follow Lingua Ignota on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment