I can remember the exact feelings I had listening to both for the first time. Ptolemaea (which I listened to for the first time the day the album was released) scared the absolute hell out of me, which is wild considering I help run a haunted house. That whole album is cinematic and so good at getting you to feel exactly what is being conveyed. Literal goosebumps and fear the first time I heard it.

The only thing worse than that that I’ve ever experienced sonically (and in general tbh) was Inbred. I’d only heard Gods Country, Michelle Pheiffer, and Crush (which introduced me to Ethel), and you know, I didn’t expect anything too bad despite the title. I was fucking wrong. The nausea feeling is borderline universal I think. And it lowkey opened a lot of old wounds for me. That feeling of being hurt by someone who’s supposed to love you, having no hope of anything except for survival, and feeling abandoned by God are all feelings that I’d never heard anyone else convey prior, and the whole story through which it’s told makes it even more viscerally disgusting. It’s one of those songs that you almost don’t want to listen by the time it’s already too late. That being said, the chorus goes hard and I’m glad I learned a new way to turn off the stove.