This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Ky Tanella. Find them on Instagram at @ky.tanella. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
“Preacher’s Daughter” became a viral sensation a few years ago due to its clear interpretation of feminine rage and yearning. However, the album has a much darker story surrounding it, and this beautiful, haunting album has a wealth of lore that begs to be explored. Each track has pages of story behind it, and the life of Ethel Cain is absolutely devastating and fascinating. This article will be discussing themes such as religious trauma, physical/sexual abuse, and gory violence – I will try to spare some of the details, but if any of that may be triggering, I recommend skipping the album! Let’s get into it!
Who is Ethel Cain?
Hayden Silas Anhedönia (Ethel Cain) is the singer-songwriter behind “Preacher’s Daughter,” and many other equally as haunting albums and EPs. Preacher’s Daughter is the first album in a trilogy of installments that are narrative, story-telling albums about the life of Ethel Cain and her family. The second album will be about Ethel’s mother (Vera Cain) and the third will be about her paternal grandmother (also named Ethel Cain). Not much has been revealed or confirmed about these other two albums, but they’re highly anticipated due to the popularity of Preacher’s Daughter!
Her Previous Music
Anhedönia’s previous albums normally have themes of yearning, heartbreak, and religion. Specifically her album “Inbred” can be quite disturbing and sad, but her music is normally ethereal, and devastating, and her voice is just haunting.
Preacher’s Daughter
Family Tree (Intro)
The first song: “Family Tree (Intro)” begins with a resounding sermon from who is assumed to be Ethel Cain’s Father, the Preacher, immediately introducing the listener to the album’s themes of Christianity with a haunting instrumental in the back. She sings about being forever tied to her bloodline, despite desperately wanting to escape it, saying the “fates already fucked me sideways” as soon as she was born. Her lamenting serves as foreshadowing for the rest of the album, as she copes will and is unwillingly subjected to all her traumas.
American Teenager
“American Teenager” is arguably the happiest track on the album, cementing itself as an indie bop when it came out as a single – it’s so cheery, in fact, that is feels disconnected from the rest of the album. Ethel sets the scene in her conservative small town in Alabama, singing about her growing disconnection from God and yearning for the life of a normal teenager. To cope with her loss of faith in Jesus and the church, she begins to drown her sorrows in alcohol.
A House in Nebraska
The song “House in Nebraska” was inspired by a run-down house that Ethel came across in Quintilly, Georgia. She reflects on her past relationship with a former lover, Willoughby, and yearns for a life where they could’ve run away, and started a life together. In the house – where they pretended it was in Nebraska to feel disconnected from their small town – she continues to drown herself in alcohol, and cries about growing lonliness she feels now that Willoughby has skipped town. She begs for him to come back, even though she knows he never will. This song is a devastating contrast from “American Teenager,” and makes me cry every time I listen to it.
Western Nights
This is yet another devastating song – who would’ve gussed – as Ethel grows infatuated with her new trouble-maker boyfriend Logan, who frequently robs banks and abuses her. She grapples with the abuse she’s facing, and the crimes he’s roping her in to. She justs to be saved from her horrible life in her small town, and having had terrible male influences, she thinks what she’s experiencing is love. She sings the devastating line: “Please don’t love how I need you,” which serves as foreshadowing, and a general theme for the rest of the album.
Family Tree
The overall theme of generational trauma is hit hard in the song “Family Tree.” After her boyfriend is involved in a fatal shooting, she is finally (metaphorically) free, nothing tying her to her hometown. She begins to take control of her own life, but this song represents a grittier version of Ethel, one that has “killed before,” and will “kill again.” She reflects on the fact that she’s tied to the violence she was bred into, and it’s inevitability, even though she wants to be bathed clean of her sins. She even asks Christ to forgive her for the “bones she’s been hiding, and the bones she’s about to leave.”
Hard Times
TW: I WILL BE DISCUSSING SEXUAL ABUSE!
“Hard Times” is perhaps one of the more devastating songs on the album. In this slow, brutally raw song, she reflects on the childhood sexual abuse that she faced at the hands of her Father, and how she was “Too young to notice that some types of love could be bad.” She’s losing her religion, and feeling guilt over the things that ultimately aren’t her fault – she’s desperate to escape her family ties, stating: “I’m tired of you, still tied to me.” Even though she begins her journey to run away from her home town, rather than feeling euphoria for her, the listener ends up feeling sad, and scared for her future.
Thoroughfare
A “Thoroughfare” is a path forming a route between two places. In this country-esque blues song, Ethel runs into a man named Isaiah as she’s wandering through Texas, who offers her a lift to California in his pickup truck. As they venture on the road together, Ethel and Isaiah fall in love, and slowly, Ethel begins to feel safe with him. She states: “For the first time since I was a child, I could see a man who wasn’t angry.”
However, this opens an even darker chapter of Ethel’s life.
Gibson Girl
TW: I WILL BE DISCUSSING SEXUAL ABUSE!
“Gibson Girl” chronicles Ethel’s life after Isahiah begins feeding her drugs, and selling her into prostitution – throughout the song, Isahiah is gaslighting her into believing that what she’s being forced to do is empowering, and by her own will. This hazy, and dream-like song sounds sexy in nature, but the lyrics represent Ethel’s staggering cries for help as she gets lost in her unhinged reality. It’s a riveting peek into “the male gaze,” as Ethel attempts to downplay her abuse by saying it’s “downright iconic” and finding a rebellious rush in being “immoral in a stranger’s lap.”
The song ends quite abruptly, ending in an extremely overwhelming climax that represents the downward spiral that Ethel is experiencing between the drugs and the men she’s forced to have sex with.
Ptolemaea
TW: I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT DEATH!
This is the “scary” song everyone was talking about for a while in 2023, and don’t get me wrong, it’s terrifying. “Ptolemaea” is named after the Ninth Circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno “Ptolemy,” where traitors reside.
In her drug-fueled haze, Isaiah attacks and kills Ethel. She’s actively hallucinating and fearfully confronting her past, her present attacker, and a haunting voice that’s taunting her to submit, and that she “cannot hide from him forever.” As she’s being attacked, we can hear her fear growing, begging him to stop, until she emits a final, blood-curdling cry. The song is nightmarish, and hard to stomach as you can truly hear her fear and agony, suffering the betrayal from the one man she thought would keep her safe.
And as she’s being attacked, a barely-heard voice whispers the Daughters of Cain Scriptures (a very important piece of lore)!
Daughters of Cain Scriptures:
“Blessed be the daughters of Cain, bound to suffering eternal through the sins of their fathers committed long before their conception
“Blessed be their whore mothers, tired and angry waiting with bated breath in a ferry that will never move again
“Blessed be the children, each and everyone come to know their god through some senseless act of violence
“Blessed be you, girl, promised to me by a man who can only feel hatred and contempt towards you.”
August Underground
“August Underground” is the first instrumental track of the album, named after a 2001 snuff film of the same name. The song represents the final moments of Ethel’s life as Isahiah murders her, characterized by aching, wailing voices and dreadful guitar reverbs – it’s haunting.
Televangelism
“Televangelism” is a stark contrast to the last track. Another instrumental, this song represents Ethel’s peace and tranquility as her soul begins its ascension to heaven. Hayden has stated that this is her favorite track on the album, and its recording is her improvising on the piano! It’s peaceful, and a beautiful break from the previous few tracks.
Sun Bleached Flies
“Sun Bleached Flies” is one of my favorite tracks on the album, personally. Ethel makes peace with her life in this beautiful, downtrodden song, and she yearns for the comfort of her faith and the church. This is juxtaposed with her reflecting on the love in her life, and how she has been betrayed by nearly every man in her life – including God, and Jesus. In her famous lyric: “God loves you but not enough to save you,” she recognizes her strained relationship with her religion, even though she’s clinging on to it, even in death. She ends the song referencing “A House in Nebraska,” clinging on to her love for Willoughby and yearning to go back to that peaceful part of her life.
Strangers
“Strangers” is an amazing closer to the album, it’s beautiful and haunting as Ethel reveals how she’s been murdered by Isaiah. Her body has been dismembered, put into Isaiah’s freezer, and is slowly being cannibalized and eaten by him. It’s disturbing, and even though she’s angry, she still shows concern for him by singing: “If I’m turning in your stomach, am I making you feel sick?” This is a haunting representation of the female experience (in my opinion), of giving everything to someone, them eating it up, sucking the life out of you, leaving you to rot, and yet some part of you still yearns to be treated right by that one person. As the song goes on, she repeats the sentiment: “I just wanted to be yours, I just wanted to be good, I just wanted to be yours.” But as the song leads to the climax, she’s progressively getting angrier and angrier, her concern melting into sarcasm and anger, as she screams: “Am I making you feel sick?”
She ends the song by sending some love to her mother, begging her not to think about her death too much. It’s very sad, a full-circle horror story about a woman who has faced nothing but abuse her whole life. It’s a beautiful send-off but leaves the listener feeling empty.
Perverts
“Perverts” is Ethel Cain’s latest EP. Be warned, if you’re looking for anything similar to Preacher’s Daughter (or anything connected to the Ethel Cain lore) this is not where you should look. Perverts is mostly ambient noise, and much of the album is absolutely haunting and terrifying – there are really only 3 or 4 songs with actual lyrics! Many of the songs pass the 8-minute mark, and “Pulldrone” in particular is a nearly 15-minute monologue about the “12 stages of Simulacrum” inspired by the writings of Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher. There’s entirely too much to say and describe about this album, so maybe I’ll save it for another time. However, if you’re looking to start your journey into Hayden’s music, don’t start with this one!
If you haven’t listened to “Preacher’s Daughter” yet, sorry for the spoilers! This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and I’m so happy that I got to talk all about the Ethel Cain lore! I highly recommend all of her albums, but please be sure to check any content warnings, it can be pretty disturbing!
I hope you enjoyed this full lore dump! Let us know how you feel about this album in the comments below!
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