SAVED! - Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter: Review
Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter
is the new pseudonym of Kristin Hayter, who formerly released three albums as Lingua Ignota. After announcing the retirement of the critically acclaimed neoclassical darkwave project earlier this year she returned with SAVED!. The album sees her continuing to dabble in religious imagery but with a shift more towards the direction of the religious music of the west and in particular the American South.
Review by Lav:
You've heard Kristin Hayter go gothic, now hear her go southern gothic. That was the pitch I felt like was given by the singles, cover, and promotional material for this record. And believe me, I was hooked. After three fantastic albums as Lingua Ignota I would have followed Kristin anywhere she chose to wander artistically. And though this felt like a very comfortable fit, I was surprised and delighted to find that description doesn't really do SAVED! justice. While the album certainly does dabble a lot in Southern Gothic aesthetics as well as the religious hymns of the 20th and even 19th centuries, there's more to it.
SAVED! spins a variety of original compositions and gospel classics into a whirlwind of consistently harrowing sonic moments. This album feels like stepping into Kristin's haunted house version of the aesthetics she interpolates. Yet far from the often cheesy and disengaged horror of a haunted house, this album is genuinely terrifying.
SAVED! was teased with a single I loved and one I liked, let's start out with the one I liked. ALL OF MY FRIENDS ARE GOING TO HELL made a lot of sense as a lead single. It's deeply submerged in the album's aesthetic both sonically and even compositionally. What I think holds the song back is that very composition though, as the refrains remaining almost identical throughout does eventually start to feel a bit routine. It's still a very well-written narrative experience that I was always happy to reach on the album. The vest next song on the album IDUMEA is another lyrical masterclass with Kristin writing her poetry in biblical proportions once again. While the refrains staying functionally identical throughout most of the song it can begin to get a bit dry. Thankfully the song deploys strategic repetition that really drills home the message of the narrative.
The only song on the album where I think that becomes an issue is THE POOR WAYFARING STRANGER. This is a 7-minute rendition of a classic gospel and folk song that does deliver on some narrative intrigue, both the story and composition unfold equally slowly. There are some subtle instrumental variations that I appreciate but they don't really feel like they do enough to keep things fresh. The saving grace is Kristin's vocals which are perfect at both the quietest and loudest moments.
The other single for the record is the 6-minute I WILL BE WITH YOU ALWAYS, and it is absolutely brilliant. It's such an incredible melding of the compositional style and presentation of music Kristin always worked so well with under Lingua Ignora with the aesthetic of religious ferocity stretched over it. When I first heard the song I said it was one of the best things I've heard anywhere in 2023 and I absolutely can't deny that it's still true. Thankfully, it isn't even close to the only highlight here.
Opening track I"M GETTING OUT WHILE I CAN is a genuinely horrifying way to start the album. From the eerie keys to Kristin's confrontational performance and the foreboding lyrics warning of an impending judgment day it's just all so grand in scope yet presented with such intimate horror. All of that combined with the glitches and distortion laced throughout the song sounding so unnatural for the style of music the track is just a brilliant start to the album. On the opposite end of things, HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING is one of the subtler embraces of the album's brand of horror. The piano and vocals aren't necessarily all that bleak on their own but Kristin's distant wailing in the background makes everything feel so much more haunting despite, or maybe because of, just how quiet it all is.
MAY THIS COMFORT AND PROTECT YOU features a vintage, almost analog-sounding layer of distortion over the instrumentation and splashed onto the vocals. It's an absolutely perfect addition that thoroughly heightens the aesthetic of the record. I honestly don't even know what the fuck the exact instrument being played even is because I don't have the liner notes to the album yet but my god is it grating in the exact right way.
My favorite of the deep cuts is I KNOW HIS BLOOD CAN MAKE ME WHOLE. This kind of song has appeared on Kristin's albums in the past and always makes for a highlight. It's sonically quite reserved especially when contrasted with some of the harsher moments on the album surrounding it. But the pure anguish of the vocal performance speaks volumes. The repetition of the title phrase conveys this need to believe in salvation and retribution but more subtly translates the anxiety of not being sure it's actually waiting for you. It's a mastercraft of both songwriting and performance that totally blows me away.
On SAVED! Kristin Hayter does it again. Even with a shift into a new name and style her dynamic talents as both a songwriter and master vocalist shine through. This album is conceptual in an entirely new way that none of Kristin's projects as Lingua Ignota ever quite achieved. With the focus shifted away from her most personal demons, she honed in on both narrative and aesthetic, creating her vision of already existing aesthetics shown through a more horrifying lens than I ever thought possible. Once again she delivers on a project that is both packed full of fascinating individual moments, but ones that build on each other and assemble something greater than the sum of its parts, and boy is it great. 8.5/10
For more experimental music check out my review of Oneohtrix Point Never's Again
