Hi, everyone. Perthony Verttano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Ethel Cain EP, Perverts.

Yes, here we have a new EP from singer, songwriter, producer, Ms. Hayden Silas Anhedönia, also known as Ethel Cain. Over the last few years, Hayden has become one of the most unforeseen success stories in the world of underground music. Despite its dark, disturbing lyrical imagery and moody instrumental backdrops, her 2022 album, Preacher's Daughter, managed to really leave a strong impression on the indie singer-songwriter set, as well as the Twitter pop girly types who ride hard as hell for Hayden on social media.

In fact, her fandom sometimes reaches intense levels of parasocial interest, which leaves them hanging on her every word, not just in the music, but on the various platforms where Hayden sees fit to open up to her listeners, whether it be about how they interpret and talk about her music or her favorite types of gay porn.

Recently, Hayden has also had some pretty strong opinions on the likes of politicians and CEOs, which landed her a nice little Fox News feature, which I love for her. Actually, though, sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not Hayden takes the fame and influence she has recently come into super seriously or maybe not very seriously at all.

What is for sure, though, is there is most definitely a lot of intent behind her music, even if I, personally, have been a little underwhelmed by it in the past. Because yes, it's true, my review of Preacher's Daughter has gone down as one of my more uncharitable takes out there. While I wasn't really crazy about the record when I originally reviewed it, the project's darkest moments had me looking forward to what might come down the Ethel Cain pipe. Maybe eventually we would land somewhere further in that direction.

And you know what? Yeah, that's pretty much what Perverts is in a nutshell. Which, again, keep in mind, this project is not technically being labeled as an album. No, according to Hayden, this is a 90-minute EP, which I think has to make this the biggest stretch of that term in recent years.

But you know what? We can let it slide because I think there is some fair reasoning behind this decision, possibly. Because while this project very much feels like an album to me, maybe it's not the album fans were expecting, given the sound Hayden blew up with on Preacher's Daughter a few years ago.

And honestly, it seems like a lot of heart and effort went into this record. Maybe that's not something you're necessarily going to pick up if this style of music is not your cup of tea. But believe me when I say, as somebody who is very much down with the type of music that goes on on this album, you can really tell in the details, in how just emotionally intense the music is.

But again, the problem is Perverts is stylistically such a massive departure from Preacher's Daughter. I'm sure Hayden wants people to hear this record. I feel like the only way she could possibly put it out without ruffling any feathers is to release it under another name. But I mean, that's pretty much ensuring nobody's going to freaking hear it, especially with how streaming platforms work these days. So releasing it as Ethel Cain, I think makes total sense, but maybe side-questing it a bit as an EP as opposed to an album is the best way of doing it.

Anyway, again, a word of warning, if you're going into this record hoping to hear the glossy, ambient, righteous, epic, Cranberries-esque indie rock of a song like "American Teenager", you're going to be sorely disappointed. You're going to be the most disappointed person on the planet. Even with the darker moments on Preacher's Daughter, as well as slow burning ballads like "Punish" teasing toward this EP, I don't really think there was anything that was going to really prepare fans for 10-minute-plus drone pieces, which has manifested in some pretty polarizing reactions to this record on social media, mostly from the pop girly crowd who are just freaking having no idea why Ethel is making this project.

But with that being said, don't merely take Perverts as some social experiment or maybe Hayden being provocative for provocative sake. While this record may provide choppy waters for some listeners, for those who are into this thing, you will be doing backstrokes through this album. You'll really get a lot out of it. Personally, I like that the very dark themes that typically turn up in Hayden's songs are reflected in the instrumentation in a big way here.

Not to mention this project is a bit nostalgic for me because it reminds me of a time period in the indie and the music writing world where uncompromising increasingly experimental drone records were getting a bit more discussion and play broadly.

Works from the likes of Tim Hecker and Sunn O))), and Grouper, as well as the early years of Oneohtrix Point Never, to name a few. I would also give a nod to various releases on Constellation Records, too. So consciously or not, I feel like Hayden is bringing back those vibes on this record once again with soundscapes that are deeply unsettling and feel like your worst nightmares come to life.

To kick things off on this record, we have the opening title track, which features this lofi vocal harmony intro that's very much in the style of a hymn. Then after that, we quickly dive into what sounds like ambient field recording noises paired with these subtly frightening muffled spoken word vocals.

Now, Hayden's personal history with social and religious repression has been pretty well documented in her music and her social media posts. This definitely seems to be a continuation of that theme, done in a way that really reflects the dark reality of that existence. Over the course of 12 minutes on this track, Hayden conjures up whirring synthesizers that are super entrancing, deep, and distorted bell tones. The longer it goes, the creepier it gets. Are there a bunch of changes or some radical switch-ups across the length of the track to make note of or eat up? Not really. But that's the thing. The joy in this track, at least for me, is in its endless overwhelming tension.

Ethel is also not just completely beating us over the head with one drone record after another, because following this is the single "Punish", which I mentioned earlier, it's pretty much a somber piano ballad a la Chelsea Wolfe. I also think Kristin Hayter and Lingua Ignota fans will get a lot out of tracks like this, too. And while I thought this track was okay as a single, it actually works as the perfect resolution to just that punishing intro.

It comes to a really grand, heavy crescendo on the back end of the track that I love, even if the cord progression I found to be a bit bland. Lyrically, I think this track also adds quite a bit to the meaning of Perverts overall, as Hayden voices a desire for of course, love. But like on previously released material, love, while it is something that she wants, it's also this huge source of shame and pain and anguish.

Following this, we go back into drone territory with "Housofpsychoticwomn", which features all these wishing noises and droning murky bass, and also a somewhat high-pitched electrical hum that sounds like power lines buzzing in the summer. There are a lot of vocals on this track as well, but they are, for the most part, spoken word. While these vocals do feature interpretable lyrics that are posted all over the internet, what I like most about them is just the instantaneous effect of how they sound in the moment. The presentation of these vocals, they're right up in your ear. It's somebody talking right next to your head in this creepy deadpan voice. In fact, it sounds like voices that are just going on in your head that refuse to stop. To be the repeated mentions of, "I love you, I love you, I love you," on the back end of the track have me freaking out.

Some more breathing room comes after this in the form of "Vascillator", which brings things back into ballad territory. But once again, Hayden is playing it loose and gentle and really asking fans to give a lot of patience to these song lengths. But if you do actually stick with this record and listen through, I think you will find the vocal harmonies on this track to be a really beautiful and gorgeous and moving contrast to just all the hideous sounds that came before. Lyrically, this track also centers around love, but a pretty sad depiction of it. We have mentions of all of this intimate and sexual imagery, but that is contrasted with asks of: "If you love me, keep it to yourself." In a way, this track is almost about love without love.

The sonic lofi grit on this record returns with the song "Onanist", where the themes of the record obviously come back to masturbation and religion and shame and purity. You know how it all ties together. But most importantly, this track ends on one of the most massive and crushing drones on the entire record, too.

Is the following track, "Pulldrone", another drone? You bet your ass it is. It's one of the biggest on the record, too. I love how as we enter the homestretch of this album, Hayden is essentially like, You know what? We're just going full on. We're not letting up. If you've gone this far into the album, you know what you're in for. We have another disturbing spoken word passage on this track, one that is a lot clearer this time around. It sounds like one of those, I don't know, tapes that you hear of a serial killer getting interviewed by a therapist while they're in prison.

The profoundly creepy vibes are giving Eraserhead, or Blair Witch Project, too. The endlessly droning string layers throughout this track are absolutely sick. They sound amazing, just the way that they're always changing and shifting, how sometimes they're smooth, harsh. Occasionally, there's a gap or two. It's absolutely raw, organic, textured, and entrancing.

After this, "Etienne" is like a moment of musical reprieve. It's this little beautiful piano and acoustic guitar progression that I think in a vacuum, I would find to be bland, but shoulder to shoulder with all these very dark ambient cuts does feel like a bright spot that is very much needed.

While the closing track might be lengthy, I'll say in terms of its gorgeous lead vocals, its crisp and icy atmospheres, and its chord progressions, I feel like this song is the most alike to a cut that could have been on Preacher's Daughter. The song, over the length of a very big fat runtime, tells the story of a lover leaving, essentially. Hayden does assure that she will be all right in the end post this separation, but I feel like she kills or fails to really acknowledge the pain by telling herself things like, "You were nothing to me," as well as the final words of the song, "I can't feel anything," which is just a relentlessly cold way to end a project like this.

But yeah, overall, I loved this EP. It's a fantastic release. One of the best dark ambient releases I've heard in quite a long time. And while some of the drones sure could have used a bit more variation, they are consistently intense. The sounds that Hayden conjures on these tracks are great. And I'm generally just impressed with the bold genre switch-up that was accomplished on this record and how well Hayden transitioned into this sound, even if what is being done on this project isn't being fully appreciated by fans who just want her to make dreamy indie guitar pop.

So, yeah, I'm feeling a strong eight to a light nine on this EP.

Anthony Fantano. Ethel Cain. Forever.