so y2k

Fun little tidbit, "Ptolemaea" is the name Dante Alighieri gave, in the Inferno, to a place in hell especially reserved for those who betray the guests in their house.

The sound of all the fly's makes this sound so much more "disgusting" and "icky" and "scary" it's perfect

I was listening to this while walking home in the dark and i had to stop the track and listen to some salsa or i was gonna have a heart attack omfg

Adding this one to my "relaxing before bed" playlist for sure

Ethel Cain has reminded us we’re not alone in our pain. That’s why this album is so special.

fun little fact; in dante’s ‘inferno’ you will see that those in ptolomaea actually are up to their necks in ice and are eating the other traitor. ethel is a “traitor” to her community and family by going against their beliefs and isiah is a traitor to ethel by killing her, and eating her.

Can you imagine how the people who were brought in by American Teenager and thought this would be a pop record must've reacted to this track?

idk how to explain but i wanna live in the resident evil 7 house with this song in the background

When you deal with years of physical abuse, hearing that "stop..STOP" scream is so triggering yet strangely so cathartic. I can feel her pain. Her helplessness. Her grief. Her strength- I can hear it all because i experienced all those things. The trauma lasts more than people want to admit. It's in everyday things like when someone oversteps your boundaries, personal space, or patience. When they raise their voice at you, when they touch you, when they make jokes at your expense. All you want to do is defend yourself or run away and cry in silence. After all these years and i'm still fighting. I'm still waiting for the day i get my peace.

This is genuinely the first time I’ve been scared while listening to a song. It captures dread so perfectly

You know when you get so high that it stops becoming fun because everything just feels scary? This songs feels like that. Love it.

This captures the rage of a woman. The rage of not having the right to own yourself. What a beauty.

"What fear a man like you brings upon a woman like me" Is such a raw and deeply unfortunate line that reflects reality far too often. It resonates with me, as a woman, and is something almost instinctual that lays in our bones from thousands and thousands of years of violence perpetuated against us on all levels and for all excuses and reasons.

The last stop is the most cathartic shit I've ever experienced, nothing like silently shouting along with it

It sounds like Ethel is hallucinating and she's not only seeing/hearing Isaiah but an amalgamation of him, the devil and her father. An unholy trinity.

This song is abjectly terrifying. Like it's literally one of the scariest songs I've ever heard. Reminds me of when I'd see a scary movie as a child and be looking over my shoulder and cowering in fear at every "humanoid" shadow.

This album covers every genre: Gospel, classic rock, lo-fi, hick ass country, and this song, the sound equivalent to having a panic attack while on speed in the woods

this song deserves a horror movie inspired music video ASAP

Hollywood needs to hire Ethel Cain to do soundtracks for movies. I can hear her music being played in the background of great movies like Silence of the Lambs. She creates hauntingly beautiful music.

Not even exaggerating, this is the best song that I've ever heard and I don't think I can bring myself to listen to it ever again.

When you work at McDonald’s and listen to Ethel Cain something happens to your brain

"stop... stop... Stop. STOP!!" God, how many times I've said that in my life to try & save myself from damage. This song hurts, but feels so releasing when she says that part. Like my chest blowing open & my heart screaming.

♡ Lyrics: I followed you in and I was with you there I invited you in twice, I did You love blood too much But not like I do, not like I do Suffer does the wolf, crawling to thee Promising a big fire, any fire Saying I'm the one, he's gonna take me I'm on fire, I'm on fire, I'm on fire Suffering is nigh, drawing to me Calling me the one, I'm the white light Beautiful, finite Even the iron still fears the rot Hiding from something I cannot stop Walking on shadows, I can't lead him back, uh Buckled on the floor when night comes along Daddy's left and momma won't come home You poor thing Sweet, mourning lamb There's nothing you can do It's already been done What fear a man like you brings upon a woman like me (show your face) Please, don't look at me I can see it in your eyes, he keeps looking at me Turn me, what have you done? Stop, stop (make it stop), stop, make it stop, stop Make it stop Make it stop, I've had enough Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop I am the face of love's rage I am the face of love's rage 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 every one 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 I am no good nor evil, simply I am, and I have come to take what is mine I was there in the dark when you spilled your first blood I am here now, as you run from me still Run then, child, you can't hide from me forever

It’s funny to see that this is every woman’s comfort song and every man who listens to it nightmare song.

I grew up in Kentucky. One day I was riding my bike through the cemetery. There was a dumpster outside the fence. There was a completely skinned deer laying next to it with some flies buzzing. I heard growling. I look back it's a doberman showing me it's teeth. This song reminds me of that. And when I have panic attacks I see it again. I've always felt like the skinless deer. Wasn't fast enough. Easy prey.

Anyone else notice that from 3:50ish the lead vocal went from being amplified to having the mic essentially cut off? He silenced her, that's why she had to scream

I can't believe McDonalds actually added this song to their Grimace's Birthday Playlist on Spotify.

my favorite Christian music album!!

I truly believed this is one of the greatest songs ever made.

Honestly, Ptolemaea really speaks to me. I’m a poor autistic girl that grew up in the south. And I’ve been abused by men. For me, the building, overwhelming nature of Ptolemaea, really feels similar to the escalation of being berated by the man you love, afraid he’s going to hit you. The noise of things hitting the wall, of his rage. The expectation for you, the lamb, to bend to his will. To retain your “purity”. The “betrayal” of every imagined infraction that you commit. And all of your senses are extra sensitive and you don’t know what you did to deserve this. The only thing you did was reject his sexual advances. The part where she screams “stop” felt like an amalgamation of those feelings and it honestly makes me cry my eyes out. I find myself silently screaming with her. It’s so therapeutic. I know that isn’t the meaning of this song. But that’s how I interpret it because of my experiences. And I think that’s the beauty of her music.

I struggle with apathy. When I need to cry, I can’t. It’s the worst thing ever. Playing this song helps me dig out all of my inner emotions, release them, and shed tears.

At the very start I feel like Isaiah was talking to her, but the next voice is literally Death. Basically telling her that it's too late. Isaiah attacked her at the beginning of the song. That's why she can't stop it, and that's why Death was like, "there's nothing you can do. It's already been done." She's already dying. She's just been refusing to believe it.

That 'stop' was so beautiful oh my god... Perfectly captures the desperation when we are faced with danger

The first few "stop" of hers sound so much like the narrative we women are expected to play even in misery, pain and the most horrid of experiences. We are expected to be quiet and clean about it. Make no fuss. Bring no disrespect and shame to your family by screaming that you've been tainted. That is the belief for the women in my country. I'm glad she screamed like that. I too, have wanted to scream like that for a long time.

i’ve never listened to a song that left my stomach so sick, the shriek, shivers

this was my number 1 song for 2023 on spotify 😭

even though i’m young i’ve got a lifetime of anger repressed. knowing that someone could scream emotions out your system like that amazes me... it makes me feel a lot better, regardless of the headaches for listening to it on repeat

Still waiting on the Kidz Bop version of this song

The “I am the face of love’s rage” after the scream is so tragic to me

Grew up in white trash Mississippi with a grandma suffering from some severe munchausen by proxy, the fear at night and overwhelming paranoia while only being 10 is captured so well in the darkness of this music. I often feel so scared to write my music using expressions of such dark subject matter but clearly it can be done tastefully and in a way which other people can resonate. Thank you.

I’ve never felt a song put sexual assault so perfectly into sound… the dreading, the knowing it’s going to happen, the fear while it’s happening and the terrifying scream when it finally happens… it’s all in this song. So perfectly presented.. I feel seen, so many of us feel seen. Thank you.

THIS LEFT ME SPEECHLESS but I HAD TO write something. Totally unexpected. Brutal. The sound of flies adds to the realism of it all. Truly respect your attention to detail throughout the whole album. Stunned.

unironically my comfort song rn

I wish she made more songs like this the feeling it gives me is almost like a trance

if ethel was a game, she'd be outlast.

the way the "you can't hide from me forever" sticks out so tastefully at the end is incredible

One of the best songs ever created I'm so serious

I am not terribly familiar with her work but the title made me curious as a fan of Dante's inferno. This song really captures the lonely frigid feeling of Ptolomaea, one of several regions of Cocytus, the frozen lake which is the 9th and lowest circle of Hell, the circle of Treachery Ptolomaea is where those who have betrayed their guests linger on in frigid agony

The fucking doom metal outro! This girl came for blood!!!!!

after years of childhood molestation and doing all I can to heal and get sober from heroin and other hard drugs and being shunned by certain parts of my family and friends for being trans I feel seen heard and understood I started last year off in a hospital I had an overdose and something snapped in me and I saw much around me that I was becoming all rooted in pain and trauma and this album felt like having a hand to hold while I walked through my own physical and mental hell

yknow how it feels when you've always cried in silence but you've figured out you can scream and rage and curse everyone who unsanctified you? thats this song

the ambiance in this track is so rich. the flies, the background voices, the layering; it’s perfect

This is the voice of every woman who has ever been terrorized by "love".

This song sounds like what it felt to be betrayed by my uncle as he sold my body out to men. Very few songs make me feel this way but this song... this song makes me feel seen, heard, understood fully and completely.

KZfaq deciding to play Temu's theme song as an ad after this was fucking emotional whiplash

Thanks Ethel, needed this pov from my sleep paralysis demon

god, what a bloodcurdling scream. thank you ethel cain for making such a writhing, agonizing, beautiful, and holy record

As someone who was in a state of severe paranoia for months due to a traumatic experience this song hits really close to home. This is exactly what the fear felt like to me.

a song to play during dinner on a lovely christmas night with the family 🌲🎅

This is our reminder that still here, on this planet, there is monsters living among us unhuman things and that we need to be always be cautious about who we trust

It makes me feel so understood, not just as a woman but as a person. Ethel Cain is amazing at portraying emotions.

WOW???! this is absolutely PACKED with emotion, like vacuum sealed packed. this woman is genius. the breakdown or climax is insane & so carefully crafted to convey an incredibly strong tone & atmosphere.

the fact this became a comfort song to me

This has me feeling like I'm sinking into an inky abyss. It's both simultaneously disconcerting and comforting.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my life

No joke, a friend of mine used Strangers in a presentation about horror in music and theater and I was instantly intrigued. She described that the album Preacher's Daughter was a scary album about a preacher girl getting caught up in a romance with a psycho cannibal killer and knew I had to give it a try. Being a self-described metal head, I charged head first with an eager interest and WOW. I have never heard a blend of sounds like this before! It is also genuinely terrifying as well! It honestly reminds me of hearing groups like Meshuggah for the first time in terms of sheer brutality yet beauty as well. There's such a wide mix of genres here I'm almost certainly Ethel Cain has invented a new one with this album. It is way more than your average pop singer-songwriter kind of music. I wouldn't even bat an eye if she opened for a death metal band with tracks like this. One thing is certain, and that is I am now a big fan of her's! If Ethel happens to be reading this, I love what I've heard so far and can't wait to see what you do next! :)

obsessed with the transition of gibson girl to ptolemaea to august underground, this album is a masterpiece

playing this to my baby cousin when he's just about to go to bed update: im not allowed at my cousins house anymore

getting ready for the club kinda track

my heart goes out to any sa survivors like myself, i see yall and please remember we are not our past, wedo not have to rot in our own tragedies that we couldnt control at the time, you are stronger than anyone knows.

Ethel didn't stand a chance.. :( This album makes me so emotional.

woke up in a bus in the middle of nowhere in Czech Republic listening to the chanting at the end of the song 10/10 experience

This kind of music makes you look behind your shoulder nervously while listening in headphones, and I'm all for it

hearing the beat drop after “it’s already been done” had me holding my breath for the whole rest of the album until at the end of strangers i lost it

This is a really hard song to wake up with it stuck in your head. As a survivor with c-ptsd, this song is cathartic but extremely triggering for me. Put me in the weirdest headspace for the day. I'm barely even here today living in the traumatic memories this brings up. This song is a spell and it is extremely powerful. The first time I heard it I had a full on physical reaction, my whole body broke, the scream sent me reeling, the pheonix fire in me got reignited. Thank you for this song but damn if I can't handle waking up with it as my earworm for the day

Like something out of Silent Hill...true, horror laced atmosphere. Haunting, amazing

god what a masterpiece. the doom metal outro is the most horrifying sequence of music i've ever heard.

It's crazy how quickly this became a comfort song

How lucky i feel to be able to see the universe through Ethel Cain's eyes... both the character and the woman behind. This track feel like if it was written by Laura Palmer, in the best way possible.

the comments are talking about how they'll never listen to this again bc it's so disturbing and while I agree I have also been listening to it on repeat I love the part after the scream so much

this song sounds like it would be in a creepy cult horror movie. its so dark and captures raw emotion

Ah. Right into my "contemporary pop" Playlist between Diamanda Galas and Lingua Ignota.

Haunting, nostalgic, spinning, atmospheric and layered in desperate passion. Best from the new album.

Gotta love an artist who could top all the pop charts if she wanted to, but instead chose the authenticity of her/the art over everything.

“I followed you in and I was with you there I invited you in twice, I did You love blood too much But not like I do Not like I do Heard you, saw you, felt you, gave you Need you, love you, love you, love you Heard you, saw you, felt you, love you Love you, love you, love you, love you Love you, love you, love you, love you Love you, love you, love you, love you... You don't have to say yes to me Suffer does the wolf, crawling to thee Promising a big fire, any fire Saying I'm the one, he's gonna take me I'm on fire, I'm on fire, I'm on fire Suffering is nigh, drawing to me Calling me the one, I'm the white light Beautiful, finite Even the iron still fears the rot Hiding from something I cannot stop Walking on shadows, I can't lead him back, uh Buckled on the floor when night comes along Daddy's left and momma won't come home, oh, uh You poor thing Sweet, mourning lamb There's nothing you can do It's already been done What fear a man like you brings upon a woman like me (show me your face) Please, don't look at me I can see it in your eyes, he keeps looking at me Tell me, what have you done? Stop, stop, stop, make it stop Stop, make it stop, make it stop I've had enough Stop, stop, stop, stop Stop, stop, stop, stop I am the face Of love's rage I am the face Of love's rage 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 every one 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 I am no good nor evil, simply I am And I have come to take what is mine I was there in the dark when you spilled your first blood I am here now, as you run from me still Run then, child You can't hide from me forever”

So... I struggled with an abusive relationship, as did my grandmother on my mother's side. The older i get the more people tell me i look like her. That last "STOP" is personal. Blessed be the daughters of cain.

bro when i was listening to this album on spotify and this played my ass got so scared😭 but i still sat through it and ended loving the whole song

I’ve waited my whole life for this album.

the musical embodiment of releasing trauma

i want to see a kidz bop version of this song. i want it now

This song has been living in my head since the day it came out. Shout out to the KZfaq algorithm for recommending this when 2 hours after it was released out of no where. Clicking this video was one of my best choices recently. If anyone knows of any songs similar to this, leave suggestions

suffocating, eerie, beautiful, cathartic. covered in goosebumps and teary eyed by the end of it

I feel understood with this track. Its comfortable and unnerving at the same time. This is how i have lived most of my life, always on edge with the falsehoods of peace by people around me. internally i have rage and twisted thoughts due to years of neglect and being forced into emotional isolation by my parents. This feels like a release

I discovered this song one night when I fell asleep and left my earphones on and my Spotify on shuffle with suggested songs, and woke up to this song and unlocked my phone and got scared af, I thought I was dreaming or died lol naturally I put it on my playlist 😊 Ethel Cain 🤘

The Chelsea Wolfe vibes

This song sounds like a panic attack and suffocation. I've only heard a few Ethel Cain songs before and I didn't really like them but this one. This one.

That screaming 'stop' towards the end gave me chills

Holy moly. How the fuck did i just discover her now?

This song feels like the spiritual black sticky goo that creeps into you while having to endure traumatizing things. Shallow breathing, racing heart & darkened mind.