The Icy Brilliance of Lust Hag's Feral Princess Black Metal

Heavy metal artists have always been conceptual architects, spinning new worlds out of thin air and committing them to tape. Despite its tendency to cling to tradition, black metal has proven to be especially fertile ground for world-building. From early visions of pre-Christian Norway and the icy fantasy realm of Blashrykh to Satanic reveries and big sky dreams of the American West, many of the most influential black metal bands of the past century have immersed themselves in the imaginary and the invented. Everyone needs an outlet, and the harshness of reality can sometimes be too much for even the most misanthropic soul to bear.

One-woman black metal entity Lust Hag is a brilliant new example of that old tendency. Bandleader Eleanor Harper's primary inspiration comes from the stresses and struggles she faces in her daily life as a trans woman living in small-town Montana, yet absent that context, one could be fooled into seeing her most recent output as a purely epic fantasy adventure. Her new self-titled LP, Lust Hag, follows the character of the Nameless Hag on a hazardous quest through territories unknown; she is stalked by nameless creatures and beset by treacherous villains as she fights to rescue Mother Miriam and deliver them both to the land of Verulica.

The soundtrack she's created for their journey is frosty and menacing, narrated by Eleanor's feral snarls (it's seldom a great idea to read black metal lyrics, for a variety of reasons, but trust me—this time, it's worth it to follow along). Lust Hag is still a very young project, but she has already been so prolific that one could be forgiven for assuming this release represents many years of artistic growth.

This one's for the girlies, too; as she's said, "This is extreme heavy metal dedicated to the beautiful pissed off princess in us all.” Not every princess is lucky enough to be rescued, or wants to be rescued at all; most of us have to write our own happy endings. Here, Lust Hag presents an enticing third option: to grab a sword, ditch the prince, take the unknown path down into the dark forest, and hew a new and better world.

It truly is a special album, and not only because of its delightful lyrical scheme. This is proper atmospheric raw black metal, the kind that first ensorcelled me as a teen and that continues to send the best kind of shivers down my spine when done correctly. "Atmosphere" is sort of a nothing word when it comes to describing music, but listen to the positively haunted synth lines on songs like "Dagger of Magdalene," and tell me you don't see understand exactly what I mean.

Eleanor was kind enough to tackle a few questions I sent her way about what all went into the new album, her relationship with her label (Salvo pals Fiadh Productions), and finding solace in imagined worlds when the dangers of this one become too much to bear. Read on, and ignore the Hag at your peril!

SALVO: For those who aren't yet familiar with Lust Hag, could you give me a little bit of background on the project?

LUST HAG: Yes! Thank you so much for having me. I started Lust Hag as a musical project in January of 2023 when I recorded my first demo on a whim one afternoon. I was pissed off and wanted to make something aggressive. At that point, I had been listening to metal pretty exclusively for years but was still creating all types of genres of music. I very quickly realized with Lust Hag that this is the style of music I wanted to make. I typically record and engineer everything myself, but will occasionally enlist the help of a friend here and there. 

You've been incredibly prolific since Lust Hag was born; this new album is your first full-length, but you've released half a dozen other EPs, splits, and collabs since 2023. you're also involved in a number of other projects on top of that. How do you keep up such an intense pace?

I think it’s because I don’t really separate my guitar practice from my recording. If I’m playing the guitar, it’s to record a new song. Lust Hag literally IS my practice and since it’s a solo project, I write and record at the same time. A typical day in my life for about half the week would consist of going to work at the record shop, going back home, plug in guitar and start playing/writing songs. The other half I’m usually spending time with my fiancé.

Lust Hag rips. You've really nailed that slightly raw, frosty atmosphere and killer groove that characterized so much of the best 90s black metal, and brought your own aggressive bent to it (the synth is perfect, too). I'd love to hear more about what went into this album—it's really something special.

Oh my gosh thank you, I’m really glad you like it! I just sort of shut myself off from the world and my friends and went into “album mode.” The further into the album I got, the more I felt like I was creating my own little world to escape to. It really became a thing of comfort after a while. My little happy place I could go to when the horrors of the world became overwhelming.

I went into writing the album knowing I wanted it to be about 35-40 minutes long, since that’s about how long my attention span for albums goes. I also knew I wanted it to stand the test of time and figured the best way to achieve that goal would be to make each song stand out as its own important piece of a larger cohesive idea. It was a really emotional experience, and I’m still extremely proud of the album.

Tell me about the Lust Hag herself! Your embrace of allegorical storytelling in your lyrics really sets Lust Hag apart, and this new album chronicles a bloody heroine's journey through a world of your own creation. Will this be the beginning of a longer story cycle? What happens once they get to Verulica?

It all sort of ties back into wanting my music to be a world of its own that you can escape to. I wanted it to be a safe and welcoming world, albeit vicious and scathing. I felt like writing about the hardships I face as a trans woman was easier and maybe more relatable if I turned it into a story that can be interpreted in many ways. Some of the lyrics of my past projects have also tied into this universe, too. I think it will casually continue on in my future releases but I won’t be limiting myself to strictly writing more story.

When they get to Verulica, the hag has a complete breakdown and goes on a violent rampage until she realizes she needs to track down a certain potion or else live the rest of her life trapped in a fit of rage. The idea is that the story never ends. It’s always another battle, hurdle, or hardship. There is no final destination of peace.

Why was it important for you to take this direction in Lust Hag's lyrics and overall aesthetic instead of going with a more typical black metal vibe? Feral princess black metal is so much more interesting than yet another Satanic ritual...

I put everything into my music. The story just came from my experiences in everyday life. I don’t know anything about Satan, Vikings or witchcraft, or even most typical black metal lyrical themes, so I just write about what I do know. And lord knows living as a visibly trans woman, or even as a woman in general, can be fucking heavy and intense and scary which makes for great metal lyrical content. It’s also a great therapeutic outlet for the disgusting shit we endure. Keeps me sane. 

The "one-man black metal" trope used to be everywhere; now, it really seems like we're witnessing the rise of one-woman black metal. Lust Hag is one of a whole new crop of rad newer one-woman black metal projects, including your East Coast collaborators Floodhag. Why has the black metal world suddenly become so riddled with powerful hags?

I was personally inspired by one-woman projects like Feminizer, Victory Over the Sun,  Bury Them and Keep Quiet, etc. I'm also really into classic acts like Mythic, Girlschool, Heart, Suzi Quatro, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Astrud Gilberto, Enya, I could go on and on. But since creating the Lust Hag project, there have been a few girls who have told me that I inspired them to start their own project, and so it seems the cycle continues.

I don’t know why there’s so many one-woman black metal bands in particular, but my guess would be that it’s because black metal has sort of always lended itself to solo projects well. I think it always comes down to the badass women who pioneered taking up space in this male-dominated world inspiring others to do the same.

I also really dug the Gun Girl album; between that and Infinite Ammo, it seems like I've found a fellow armed metal girlie! If you're comfortable, would you be down to speak a little on the role firearms and armed self-defense/community defense play in your life?

Yeah, so I armed myself out of necessity. One time a man told me he would stab me because I was in a dress; another time, I was followed home by a man who screamed at me that he would rape and kill me. My fear is that in the future, when being transgender inevitably becomes illegal in this country, getting armed would be a lot more difficult, if even possible at all. And at that point, hostility towards trans folks will have skyrocketed beyond what it’s already amounted to.

I sort of just scrambled to get trained up and have everything I would need a few years ago. The people who want to harm trans people the most are presumably owners of multiple firearms, if not outright hoarding them, and that scares me. My trans sisters are shot every day in this country anymore, it seems. I didn’t feel there was any other option. 

Your hometown of Missoula, Montana has undergone a rapid shift over the past decade, with skyrocketing housing costs and an influx of new residents. I'm really interested in hearing about how that change has impacted you as a local and as an artist. Has Missoula gone the way of Portland, Denver, Boise, etc? Can a working class artist still make a living there?

Well, the housing market crash of 2008 is where it feels like it started. That really affected us as a family, and a lot of my friends too. Missoula is a lot like those cities you mentioned as far as gentrification goes; the only difference is that we aren’t a big city. I lived in Portland for a bit and it definitely feels more intense here in Missoula since it’s a smaller community. I don’t know if I’ll ever make a living off of music alone, especially since I don’t perform—and especially not here in Missoula. 

You linked up with Fiadh Productions fairly early on in Lust Hag's career. Unlike many small underground labels, they proudly operate with an explicitly leftist, anti-oppressive political ethos. Why do you think it's so important for projects like theirs—and yours!—to be visible and take more space in the underground scene?

I can’t talk too much about Fiadh without getting emotional. We’ve become such good friends, she’s so amazing and inspiring. I think her label is incredibly important because she gives a platform to artists who otherwise wouldn’t get that chance. Her hard antifascist stance is obviously necessary in this particular genre, because otherwise it’s just fascists and boneheads running the game. And for someone like me, that could be potentially dangerous or life-threatening. 

What's next for you and Lust Hag? Anything else you'd like to add?

Next for Lust Hag is a split with Reaping Fields, a split with Genital Shame, a three-way split with Feminizer and Bury Them and Keep Quiet, and a split with Forgotten Ruin. We’re also working on getting physicals out for Gun Girl and Termagant.

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