Spiritual Awakenings, Vulgarity and Slaying Demons: Dana Dentata Gives Birth to Pantychrist
After a spiritual awakening, healing trauma and securing her spot in sex-positve industrial rap metal, Dana Dentata returns with the birth of her Pantychrist album backed by powerhouse label Roadrunner Records. As the first female solo artist to drop an album on the label, Dentata is moving from her once demon-loving, femme domme persona to now embracing angels, purity and healing of the womb.
Pantychrist may sound like antichrist but it’s quite the opposite.
Dentata welcomes a higher power and white light to surround her years of therapy and spiritual breakthroughs. With similar soundscapes and taunting vocals of Genitorturers and Plasmatics and the shock rock-esque horror of Rob Zombie, this album serves as a celebration towards the songstress’ artistic transformation to “angel energy only.”
Dentata has famously coined the motto “Trust No Dick,” as she is the only female solo artist on a notoriously male-dominated label in a male-dominated genre. Filled with slasher babes and purifying a woman’s womb, Pantychrist is breaking that barrier between the separation women face in heavy music.
Dentata collaborated in the studio with artists / producers including Travis Barker, Robokid, Yawns and Fish Narc of GothBoiClique and The Heavy.
The record begins with “Birth” accompanied by a baby screaming in anguish with distorted guitar sounds as Dentata recites a traditional eulogy, “We gather here today to put Dana to rest.” This is the artist’s second and final phase of stepping out from a dark angel energy that no demon can conquer. She is also signifying the delivery of the long awaited Pantychrist which tours Dentata’s explorations of bodily autonomy, health struggles and essentially reclaiming her womb.
Horror movie scenarios, surgical tools, axes and blood. Produced by Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs, the lead single—“Pantychrist”—is backed by a music video where Dentata blends Catholic imagery and depicts herself as a Christ-like figure battling her demons. In the video, Dentata is pregnant and gives birth to Pantychrist.
It might be her lyrics; sharp, sexually explicit and full of rage: “I tripped, I bruised, I bled, I scarred / I will always forgive, I won’t forget that I’m starved / Hail Mary, motherfucker, how’d I make it this far? / No regrets, I repent, resurrect / From the dirt out the grace, comin’ straight for the neck / This shit feels like a dream that’s too good to be true / I’m not grieving any longer, now I’m healing the womb / Can you feel my freedom from the tomb? / I’m not grieving any longer, now I’m healing the womb.”
By exploring her trauma and healing throughout the video, Dentata uses Catholic references to talk us through the fallen demons to the creation of an angel. Adorned with white garments and crosses, Dentata baptizes herself in the lake and references that there’s life beyond the grave like the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Her baptism illuminates a union or rebirth and through this, the child gains entrance into the holy body of Christ and purity.
“The Pantychrist state of mind I have been manifesting is finally coming to fruition,” Dentata said.
“Church Hooker” welcomes the erratic synthesis of rap and metal to produce something aggressively new. As the songstress screams “I’m suffering” throughout the track, the production is unrelenting and heavy with pounding trap drums backed with volatile soundscapes. “Church Hooker” adds to the expansiveness to the album in eerie moments of ethereality that resemble ‘90s industrial and cyberpunk blasts into metal similar to Nine Inch Nails.
“Spit” features renowned drummer Travis Barker of Blink-182. The fourth song off Pantychrist acts as a bad bitch revenge anthem for those who don’t need to apologize for reclaiming their body through spiritual healing. The lyrics “Spit like venom from a snake / No, my soul is not yours to take / I’ll spit right on your plate / But I know that you want it because it’s great,” centers around a nightmarish aesthetic interlaced with touches of dark arts and mystical practices. Barker’s drum solo concludes the tale of retribution off with a bang.
The softest track on the record, “Apology,” packs a similar punch with it’s bone-chilling chant, “You need to look in the mirror / You need to face what you fear / You need to look in the mirror / You need to know why I’m here.” In the “Apology” music video, two different personas of Dentata are shown. The first one is wearing heavy, dark makeup and screaming in torment at listeners. The second is wearing a bedazzled, angel-like bodysuit that glimmers a white light while Dentata shifts her usual macabre and blood-dripping makeup to a more natural look. The second persona takes on a more angelic, and soft—yet dominating—presence which equals a beautiful harmonization to the destruction as Dentata breaks glass with a bloody axe.
In the single, Dentata wanted to embody her personal idol Britney Spears’ journey as she began advocating for herself. Dentata said that she can relate to the star’s struggles as she was criticized and controlled by many in the music industry who “deep down hates women.” The songstress also wants people to fuck off and take a look at themselves in the mirror.
“I wanted to manifest becoming an invincible, healed, superhero version of myself. Little did I know how extreme and emotional the process was going to be. The only way to get there was to do the uncomfortable, painful work of dealing with the real Dana and what she has been through. All of my music before this, I feel like I was projecting my discomfort and preaching from open wounds,” Dentata said.
Dentata’s loose-tongued rhymes run strong on “Happy Family” that play into the nightmarish drone of the bass and claustrophobic electronics. She excels in creating forbidding atmospheres where she perfectly captures her own identity as Dana and the authoritative energy behind Dentata. Before Dentata was born, Dana faced heavy criticism and abuse as a child in the modeling and music industry. “Happy Family” is a more vulnerable, almost naked, single that talks listeners through the abuse she faced before her therapy breakthroughs. “Mommy, daddy, baby, please don’t hate me, think I’m crazy / They all live inside my body, you can see them, they’re amazing / All these different personalities inside me, can’t control it / Cause somebody went inside me and my soul, they fuckin’ stole it.”
“We are truly our own worst enemy. We project our insecurities, our frustrations and our pain onto other people. I have suffered so much abuse, and at the end of the day, it’s not about revenge or destroying the people that hurt me. The only way to cope, overcome and heal is to look inward and take care of the real Dana. I have been fighting against what has happened to me my whole life, and the only way to find inner peace is to crack myself open, lose the shame, find acceptance and take accountability. That is how I recover and move forward,” Dentata said.
“Free,” is the record’s most surprising track of all—just Dentata singing acoustic with a bare-bones strummed guitar and a heart full of memories and vulnerability. Dentata sings in confession and lets her walls down, “Back to the city where everyone hurts me / Where nobody loves me for me / Nobody cares how much I hurt, they just want what I got / And I don’t have a lot, they sucked it the fuck out of me / I’ve been afraid to be myself again / Cause I’ve let too many evil rapist demons in / It’d be your own friends, don’t trust nobody / Don’t even feel like I’m still in my body.”
“I.U.D.” surpasses fan favorite “DO U LIKE ME NOW?” The single maintains its gloomy undertones and touches on demonic motherfuckers, liars, soul snatchers and beggers. The listener can feel climbing into Dentata’s industrial metal chamber, saturated in haunted mechanical narratives. “You’re my bitch, I’m the boss, bitch / Somebodies gettin’ pregnant / That somebody’s not me / Don’t wanna get knocked up / That’s why I got an I.U.D. ho.”
“Dstock’99” is the conclusion of the coming of Pantychrist. Dentata ties the unhinged venom structure of Pantychrist in this confined nightmare of a single. She says a literal fuck you to misogynists, abusers and rapists in the industry in the final act of her persevering into an angelic light. “I be on my Kid Rock shit / Everybody in the world that can suck my dick / Middle fingers in the air / Middle fingers in the sky / Saying fuck everybody bitch one more time.” She sharpens her teeth as she bites deeper into the final manifestations of slaying her demons once and for all. With this final track of full-bodied guitar shreds, she becomes the Christ of her womb.
Dentata births Pantychrist into fruition as a sparkly and blood-splattered spectacle when stripped to its layers. Powerful and provocative, the metal songstress transcends listeners into a world of brutal feminine rage and heart wrenched sagas of spiritual healing. Dentata takes back the meaning of masculinity by showing it comes from a woman's power—and rightfully so.
Dentata’s manifestation of a holy evolution from darkness to light is an unforgettable artistic breakthrough in the songstress’ career. In an interview with Kerrang, Dentata said, “Healing a lifetime of trauma can feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and painful, similar to a pregnancy. Your former self may die in the process but what comes next is a new creation of life that is beautiful and pure. In many ways the abuse I’ve endured around my womb has held me down and kept me in purgatory. Ripping out the nail from my womb means setting myself free, bringing my new self back to life to experience happiness, purity and bliss.”
Keep up with Dana Dentata and all her newest releases and music updates on Instagram, Spotify and YouTube.