Lust Hag's new album feels like getting bashed over the head
"It’s like everything you see is some sort of weapon against you. ... That wears on you after a while, and I needed to get that out lyrically."
Eleanor Harper is Lust Hag, a one-woman feral metal project from Missoula, Montana. Last year, she released her fantastical (and fantastic) self-titled album. The album is stark and desolate, painting a gothic wintery picture with its haunting synthlines and soaring riffs. It spins the tale of The Nameless Hag, a refugee fighting to protect herself and Mother Miriam as they travel to the land of Verulica. Along the way, she must use her sword to fend off hordes of beasts and navigate ever present darkness. It’s not hard to see real life parallels within this story of a tyrant pushing people out of their homes and into unending plight.
On Lust Hag’s newest album, the “prettier” riffs are traded in for harsher, death metal assaults. That storyline is gone as well, and this time she spits grimier, more direct lyrics. Lust Hag’s encounters with fascism, transphobia, and capitalism are far more explicit this time around - it’s not just about running from those evil overlords, it’s about destroying and eating them; it’s not about receiving a cut or two from otherworldly beasts, it’s about being bludgeoned to death by fascists.
Needless to say, it’s an intense album. Irrevocably Drubbed sounds exactly as advertised, like an endless onslaught of indescribable violence and anguish. There is no respite - even the album’s interlude feels violent in its desolate emptiness. “The phrase ‘irrevocably drubbed’ is a bit of a metaphor in and of itself,” Eleanor explains. “Being drubbed means getting a beating that's supposed to be an act of humiliation or a punishment of some sort, and a lot of times I feel like the album cover, like my head is being bashed in over and over with all this stress from the ostracism and the persecution against trans people.”
Eleanor hopped on a video call with me shortly before the album’s release. We spent a lot of time talking about the themes present on the album and the ways living in present-day United States feels like living on a literal battleground. We also dug into her production ethos, dissed American highway infrastructure, and discussed the beauty (and sometimes the horror) of Montana.
How does it feel now that you're so close to the album’s release?
I'm feeling nervous and excited, similar to what stage fright before going on for a performance would feel like. Everybody's about to finally see what I've been working on for almost a year now. When you're on a label and doing it that way, it just takes so much longer than you'd ever expect. I was listening to an interview with my friend Erin [Dawson] from Genital Shame, and she was like, “however long you expect it to be, it's going to be longer than that.” So now, months later, we've got our vinyl and we're sending out orders.
It’s kind of crazy that you have another album coming out…it’s only been, what, a year since your self-titled?
Almost exactly. Yeah, a couple weeks apart.
It takes some people years and years to put out a second album!
Haha, well, we'll see how long the next one takes. But you know, as long as the music keeps coming, I'll keep recording. It's my outlet. So as as often as I can channel it, I will.
Are you always riffing and writing?
Well, not always. I haven't written in a couple weeks, but I think I laid down an eight minute or so song just a couple weeks ago 'cause I was bored.
I want to ask you about your production set-up a bit. I know that there are a ton of one-woman, one-man metal bands, but…
Totally. It's like, a stereotype at this point.
But I still think it’s so cool whenever I find out a “band” is all one person! Is it a simple set-up or do you have a ton of gear wired up?
No, it's pretty simple. We got everything set up in this room here, so I can just sit down and start whenever I want. I've got a little Behringer audio interface, and I've got a little tape on the input knob to mark where the levels are for each instrument so I can keep it uniform throughout a recording session. The pedal I use is this APMD 2 by HM2 Cult. It's a clone of the Boss HM2 - the classic heavy metal guitar pedal from the 80’s. It's nerdy stuff, but I love this pedal ‘cause you just turn it on, and it's ready. I play a Schecter E1 Special Edition - it's got the Floyd Rose on it, trans purple burst…it's got this apocalypse pickup and a sustainiac pickup…and then I have two bass guitars that I go back and forth with.
I also use Rattlesnake cables. They're made in Missoula and they come with a super durable plasticky webbing around the cable itself, basically indestructible. And they've got a lifetime warranty, so if I ever break one of those, I'll be able to get it fixed close by. Not to turn this into an advertisement for Rattlesnake, but they're amazing.
But yeah, it’s all pretty plug and play - one pedal, one audio interface going into the computer, and then GarageBand on my old ass MacBook. The way I do it is: I'll record guitars first, 'cause the riffs are kind of the heart of the song to me. And then I'll write the bass to it, 'cause that's easy. I'll play all that to a metronome. I fill in the drums last - I program them so I'm not actually playing them, but I'll tap it out because I get more human patterns that way.
I really dug the world-building on your debut album, but Irrevocably Drubbed goes a totally different direction lyrically. Do you view this as a continuation of the “story,” so to speak, or is this totally its own thing?
Yeah no, it's not really a continuation of the first story at all. For this album, I just wanted to talk about stuff that's been plaguing me and torturing my mind. Not to sound too dramatic, but this was more of a therapy session for me, almost like a call into the void because it's all about the stuff going on right now.
It all just weighs on you. The eyes weigh on you - like, everyone's always looking when you're a tall, clocky bitch like me. Everyone is turning to fucking stare. And sometimes you can tell when they're nice or whatever, but most of the time, it's looks of disgust. That wears on you after a while, and I needed to get that out lyrically. I needed to somehow present these ideas, and the story was not going to do it for me this time.
Right, a lot of these themes were present on Lust Hag, for sure, but it does feel like Irrevocably Drubbed discusses fascism and bigotry much more directly.
Yeah, I'm confronting the things that I have a hard time expressing with this album. And, yeah, there's an “eat the rich” song - gotta have that, you know? But there's also a lot of my own struggles with religion, and how oftentimes Christianity is horribly anti-queer. I think with the first album, I wanted to talk about my problems in this vague metaphorical sense, but I'm being much more blunt on this new record.
Is it more cathartic to be direct and blunt like that?
I mean, I think this album overall was more cathartic for me just because it's heavier than the last record, which was prettier and less aggressive. So, yeah, I wouldn't say it's more or less cathartic because either way, the Nameless Hag is me. I can relate with every single scene of that story from the first record - that's my lived experience, but turned into some fantastical story. I'm still feeling all the same things in those songs as I am in these newer songs, but in a different and more evolved way.
I've also gotten further into transition, which has kind of formed how I approach the project now versus when I started.
How so, if you don't mind me asking?
Well, when you get on hormones, it's like second puberty. In my case, I had like, fully leveled out and felt like a chill and calm adult…but getting on the hormones was like, “OK, I'm a teenager again, my brain feels like it's a teenage brain and things are so much more intense.” Your brain is doing all these crazy things and you're feeling everything like, ten times as intense as you did before.
But where I am now, I feel much more leveled out and more confident in my identity, and less emotionally caught up in certain things. It's hard to put into words, but I feel like now I can look at things in a more clear-headed and big picture sort of way than I used to be able to. When you get on hormones - when you start your transition - you got a lot of shit to learn, and now I know a lot more than I did and I feel a lot different than I did. So maybe the album's more cohesive because of that - it sounds and feels like a different and more evolved form of Lust Hag.
I was curious about how much Montana influences the music you make. I visited there in the summertime, and I was like, “okay, these mountains are pretty metal, this must look really badass in the wintertime.”
Oh, the climate here is insane. It's awesome. I love the winters so much. They are kind of brutal and it does feel really badass. I walk every day to and from work. So yeah, I'm just out in it at all times. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
You know, that’s another thing about your music - it does kinda feel like trudging through a brutal winter storm.
Yeah, that's the one thing I can relate to the most on the self-titled. I walk every single day - miles and miles every day because it's good for me mentally. And I think in like, thirty years I will be thankful that this was my lifestyle instead of driving around all the time. I won't get too into it, but I am very anti-car culture, and United States infrastructure is probably the worst of the worst as far as that goes.
No, I wish I could use my car less. But New Jersey feels like it’s one big highway, so I can’t do it.
The thing is, nobody fucking can! Like, nobody has the option because the option isn't there! It sucks!
The other thing that struck me about Montana is - when we were driving into Whitefish, one of the first things we saw was this circle of religious billboards and Ronald Reagan quotes.
Oh, I know where you're talking about. Isn't that insane?
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah. It's intense. Missoula is a lot more left-leaning than the rest of the state, so you don't really see as much of that in town here. But yeah, you leave Missoula and…
There's actually this big billboard maybe fifteen miles north of Missoula that's like, “Montana stands proud with President Trump, Elon Musk and RFK Jr.” And it's a huge, HUGE billboard. People are spending a lot of money on their presidential merch and their signage and they're putting ‘em up everywhere. They're loud and proud, for sure.
I think a lot of those people are going to be pretty disappointed when a lot of our public land ends up getting sold off to rich people, and no one can hunt or do any actual Montana shit out here anymore. It'll be a huge bummer 'cause I think a lot of those people were duped into thinking the way they do and it will not work out in their favor. And part of me is like, “yeah, fuck you!” But part of me is like…I feel bad for those people, for sure.
I have kind of the opposite thing going on in Jersey, because we're a blue state. But where I live is super red, so you’re never sure what kind of person you’re going to get.
Yeah, I feel like that's kind of how Montana is. It's like, you never know. There's such a mix politically here. Our state is probably under more risk of having public lands and everything taken away than other states, though, because we've got Tim Sheehy lobbying against public lands.
I think I saw a million ads for him while I was there.
Yeah, you sure did. Shady Sheehy. That was like, a name that Montana kids were calling each other on the playground as an insult. Like, “nah-nah, you’re a Shady Sheehy!”
Which, speaking of it being a red state. It’s pretty easy to get guns there, right? I saw you mention in your Salvo interview that you have some.
Yeah, I got another gun recently, and I probably won't stop. We're a constitutional carry state, so I don't need a permit to walk around with mine. Isn't that crazy? Like, I can - and do - throw my gun in my pocket and walk out the house. Once you start carrying, you start noticing other people carrying. You'll see a belt buckle looks a little too big under a shirt, or you'll see someone with their shirt tucked in and there's a clip on their belt that goes to nothing, and it's like, “OK, I know you got a gun on you.” It's like, every other fucking person here. So my thought is - hypothetically your fascist neighbor owns and hoards multiple firearms and is buying a lot of ammo so…
Right, if they’re doing it then…
Yeah, if they're the people I'm scared about fucking killing me, then I should have a way to defend myself against that, right?
I mean, living in that situation - where you feel constantly threatened, constantly being around people packing heat and seeing crazy fucking billboards - that’s got to come out in your songwriting, right?
Yeah, all that is part of the irrevocable drubbing. That's what it is, you know - it’s like everything you see is some sort of weapon against you. And there are people out there that are supportive and stuff, of course, but for the most part, you cannot escape transphobia. You can try to stop scrolling on the Internet or whatever, but even in the comments on videos that have nothing to do with trans people, you'll see someone commenting like, “that's probably a man” or some shit like that. It's rampant. It's so overwhelming and you cannot escape it.
I know for Irrevocably Drubbed you’re primarily pulling from real world shit, but I was curious if you ever draw any inspiration from any mythological sources, or maybe a particular writer.
Honestly, mainly Lord Worm from Cryptopsy. I think the the lyrics from None So Vile are so beautiful and poetic, and disgusting at the same time. I've always tried to match that energy. I'm a huge fan of that record and I think that's probably one of my biggest lyrical influences.
Lyrics to me are poetry and I think they should be treated as such. I don't want to write something generic. I want to write something that will be able to stand alone on its own as a solid piece of writing. Metal lyrics don't need to be fucking dumb and they don't need to be cryptically vague. I want to write stuff that is going to leave an impression on the person who's reading it. If I should be so fortunate to have people who read my lyrics, then I should put in the proper effort and make sure they're good. I'm thankful that anyone even gives a shit about the lyrics and the stuff I'm saying, because I don't feel like a lot of people always do look them up.
I wanted to talk a little bit more about the production of the album. In the liner notes, you have: “NO TRENDS NO PRODUCTION NO AFFILIATIONS JUST RIFF AND ANGUISH.” I love this slogan. I would love to hear more about this ethos.
Well, obviously I did produce this record, so some production, but yeah - I'm just fucking making riffs. I'm not trying to reinvent anything. I'm not trying to make some overly progressive metal 'cause that's what's gonna get good ratings on Rate Your Music or whatever. I'm trying to make some old school sounding shit, and old school shit did not have this squeaky clean, bland, cookie cutter production.
Maybe I would work with someone in the future on mixing and mastering, but there'd have to be someone very specific that I wanted to work with. Someone where I'm interested in their art and the way that they do things, not someone who's just pumping out a million records for any band that'll throw them some money.
Hell yeah. Keep it grimy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah! And I mean, part of the slogan is like - it's supposed to be slightly humorous. I would like to think I have a sense of humor, and I would like to think that I can have fun with things without having to have a stick up my fucking ass in order to be “trve kvlt” or whatever you want to say. So yeah, I'm glad that you found that entertaining.
I don't make any music myself, but a big thing I’ve learned through these interviews is that making music is not nearly as cost prohibitive as a lot of people think it has to be.
A lot of people think you have to hire somebody else to mix your stuff, hire somebody to master your stuff. Pay somebody for album art. And like, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to see this project through from start to finish and I'm going to have my hands on every single step. I don't think you have to spend all that money in order to be well received or get on a label. I think a lot of people hold themselves back making excuses for themselves like that.
Did you do the artwork for the the album cover then?
Yeah, it's a painting I made, and then the border I drew by hand. The logo I made on a piece of notebook paper years ago, so even the font is something I drew myself.
I know you just put out an album, but what's going on in the Lust Hag world after this?
Well, I've got two songs that amount to about fifteen minutes of material on the way. I will be on Bandcamp Radio, so look out for that [editor’s note: This has already happened! Listen to it here!].
Support Irrevocably Drubbed on Bandcamp, and keep up with Lust Hag at these links.
