The new single of Dutch witch rock artist Annicke Shireen is a manifesto of empowerment rejecting expectations placed on women. ‘Loud Hag’ is one of the most unapologetically heavy tracks of her upcoming debut solo album DELIRIUM (out Friday, the 13th November 2026) and reclaims a term traditionally used to diminish women. This track turns being perceived as too loud, too old, too opinionated or too difficult into something worth owning.
Pre-order DELIRIUM here
Early digital release on Bandcamp on 23rd October, 2026
With it’s metal-influenced guitar riffs and high, layered feminine vocals ‘Loud Hag’ becomes the perfect soundtrack for the process of unlearning expectations and becoming more comfortable with the person you were not supposed to become. The song doesn’t apologise for its volume, instead it takes the idea of being “too loud” and makes loudness itself a statement.
Annicke Shireen about ‘Loud Hag’:
“I refuse the idea that anger of women needs to be softened, explained or made palatable. To me rage is a compass, and it is an important creative force. ‘Loud Hag’ is me taking a word that was meant to put a woman back in her place and making it powerful and something to claim with pride.”
Annicke Shireen, known as the frontwoman of SHIREEN and through her work with Heilung and Pure Reason Revolution, has developed a career that moves between music, performance and visual art. Her solo work brings those disciplines together as writes and produces her own music while creating a visual world around it, from music videos and styling self-designed stagewear as she holds a degree in fashion design. Annicke’s visual approach has long been closely connected to her music and some of her music videos reached millions of views (‘UMAI’ 6.3 million views and ‘So Human of You’ 1.7 million views).
Her debut solo album DELIRIUM combines alternative rock, metal, synthpop, folk and dreamy grunge, while maintaining a recognisable core of heavy guitars, layered vocals and electronic textures. It grew out of Annicke’s interest in how we construct our understanding of reality, particularly through the perspective of a neurodiverse mind. DELIRIUM looks at the frameworks people inherit and the expectations they learn to live by: ideas about femininity, relationships, belonging, emotional behaviour and what is considered “normal.” Rather than presenting fragmentation or difficult emotions as things that need to be fixed, Annicke explores what can be learned from them.
That idea connects the album’s different subjects. DELIRIUM moves through love and obsession, personal growth, female empowerment, anger, belonging and the difficulty of trying to find change in yourself while the world around you seems to be set in its ways. Annicke is particularly interested in the relationship between feminine rage and what she describes as a softer kind of revolution: not necessarily becoming louder for the sake of it, but questioning why women are so often expected to make themselves smaller, more agreeable or easier to accept.
Musically, DELIRIUM relies on contrast without becoming fragmented. Heavy guitar-driven passages sit alongside spacious vocal arrangements, synth-led tracks, folk influences, lo-fi textures and moments drawing on gospel and psychedelic rock. Annicke’s layered vocals remain a consistent thread throughout, at times creating a large choral sound and at others bringing the songs into a much more intimate space. The album’s title reflects that tension. Annicke originally considered calling the record Hysteria, but chose DELIRIUM as it was more fitting to the genre of the album. For her, DELIRIUM describes the uncomfortable point at which the framework you have been living inside stops making sense.
Annicke Shireen about her debut solo album:
“DELIRIUM is about the moment when the framework you have been living inside no longer fits. It’s the magic of the moment where we stop being acceptable and start becoming ourselves. I wanted to explore that uncomfortable space between losing control and finally taking the power back.
I wanted to give words to the beauty of a mind that does notalways move according to the expected rules. Rather than presenting fragmentation as something that needs to be fixed, I wanted to shed light on the wisdom, knowledge and power inside it. The songs of my debut album give shape to feelings of rage, grief, fear, euphoria and love, and I believe music is the best medium to speak from heart to heart.”
Tracklist:
1. Paper Skin Rite
2. Heresy
3. Come To Light
4. False Gods
5. How To Cure A Feeling
6. Not Your Mother
7. Loud Hag
8. To Belong
9. The Circle
10. Queendom
Upcoming live dates:
Oct 14, 2026 – Online – Listening Party
Oct 23, 2026 – Ede NL – Astrant
Oct 31, 2026 – Capelle aan den IJssel, NL – Capsloc
Nov 12, 2026 – The Hague, NL – Grey Space (record release show)
Line-up:
Annicke Shireen – Vocals
Davy Knobel – Guitars
Jos Driessen – Bass
Wouter Macare – Drums & Percussion
Kati Rán, Anna Baumann – Backing vocals
Annicke Shireen online:
Website
Bandcamp
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
Spotify
YouTube
