"Thorns and Crowns: Angel Lord's Song for the Villainized"

June 16, 2025

"Thorns and Crowns: Angel Lord's Song for the Villainized"

Angel Lord, the indie punk rock siren still carving her way through the brambles of the music scene, has returned with a tune that claws at the heart and cries at the moon. Her third single, “Villain,” may be a storm brewed from the echoes of Paramore’s crude insubordination, Evanescence’s frequenting confessions, and Halsey’s rankling genuineness. Each note trickles with the anxious soul of these influences—an electric beat of disobedience that ties the past to her display voice, furious and unwavering. Where Hayley Williams might seethe, Amy Lee might mourn, and Halsey might confess, Angel fastens these feelings together and shouts them back at the world.

“Villain” was born of a truth as well numerous have gulped in silence—the harm of being accused for wounds you did not create yourself. For a long time, this track was as it were a phantom in Angel’s intellect: a story she required to shout but seem not shaped yet. At that point came the line—“Villainize your victims.” It surfaced like a truth whispered within the dull, and from that seed, the tune spread out like storm clouds gathering at nightfall. Each verse trickles with the hurt of disloyalty and the coarseness of recovering one’s story when the world turns your torment into its possess substitute.

Angel wove its pulse from tribal-esque drums, a war cry designed alone in her DAW late into the night. The melody breathes with spacey “oohs” in its intro, an otherworldly fog some time recently the storm breaks. Once the vision crystallized in her mind, there was no turning back—Villain needed to be whole, an insubordinate orchestra calling out false reverence and turning anguish into control. It’s an anthem and a fight song all at once, as new because it is raw, as catchy because it is cathartic.

Following the shadowy corridors of “Trapped in Wonderland” and the veiled dance of “Masquerade,” "Villain" refuses to ask for understanding; instead, it yells for equity and moves within the flares of misconception. This tune may be a reflection held up to the abuser and a crown put solidly on the so-called villain’s head. And if this single is the pulse of her coming EP, audience members ought to brace themselves—Angel isn't just telling her story; she’s rewriting the ending.