ETHEL CAIN - Perverts (Review)

“And we passed through the country of the blind. 
And we passed through the slough of the despond. 
And we passed through the veil of tears.
And we came, finally…”

‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’ by Harlan Ellison

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Written by: Ancient Hand

The story of Ethel Cain--the artist, not the titular character of the debut LP Preacher’s Daughter (2022)--is spreading like wildfire. Is it truly necessary to dissect the relationship between Ms. Cain and her rapidly expanding, terminally-online fanbase? I hope not. It feels tired. It feels like a shallow reading of this project’s intentions. It feels like the conversation the artist herself does not want to have. The important footnote to this is that Ethel Cain wants her art, which she puts immense amounts of thought and energy into (just like every other solo music artist), to be taken seriously. With that in mind, let’s discuss her first extended foray into drone and noise music under the name of Ethel Cain. 

Perverts, which has been dubbed an album by some, an EP by many more, and a release by the artist that created it, is an 89-minute project that explores themes of love, sex, devotion, and self-inflicted punishment. This is immediately evident through the repeated lines on the title track: “Heaven has forsaken the masturbator.” This perverse [haha] and deeply unsettling notion is just one of many swirling through this project’s runtime. With the twisting of the themes of sex and religion into the DNA of this release, Cain has to be saying something big, right? Her intentions in the past have always portrayed a deep understanding of the American South and the cycle of violence inflicted upon women by those they should trust the most, but what is Perverts saying? According to Cain, she is discussing the Pillars of the Simulacrum. In essence, the replacing of what does and should exist with an imitation or false representation of that honest original. These twelve steps are outlined on the aptly titled “Pulldrone,” which paint an image of descending into a depravity beyond compare--through layers of apathy, lust, hate, and annihilation as well as a host of other progressively tormentous and self-fulfilling concepts riddled with emotional horror. The key here is that Ethel Cain is exploring the very idea of creating a false sense of self to present to others--this false self comes in numerous forms, and the greatest danger shared by all is their collective dishonesty.

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