Chelsea Wolfe is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter who is known for her unique sound, combining elements of genres like drone, metal, and folk into her music. It wasn't until the release of her album Pain Is Beauty in 2013 that Wolfe really began to receive critical acclaim, as she appeared to truly find her voice with that release. While it certainly was a solid release, I struggled to understand exactly what it was about Chelsea Wolfe that everyone was so crazy about, and went into her newest project hoping for some clarification.
Chelsea had said that going into this album, she wanted to create something heavy. Not heavy in the sense of making the kind of album you'd get from a death metal band, but heavy in the sense that you can feel the music. She accomplishes that, as the album at times does border on the doom metal genre. A perfect example of that is the intro track, Carrion Flowers, which contains some very ugly and heavy synths, and an almost robotic sound. It's a surprising choice for an intro track however, as it's perhaps the most full and complete instrumental on the album.
The trance-like, drone influence on Abyss is definitely one of the positives, as you'll get lost in the noisy and repetitive guitar chords as soon as the album begins. Wolfe's voice works fantastically with this style, due to her hazy vocal style. Much like her other projects, she avoids staying in a single lane, and changes her sound consistently as the track listing progresses. As she has said before, she draws influence from a plethora of different genres, ranging from black metal to folk, and that really comes through on this project. Lyrically, she has stated her influence when it came to writing songs was in large part sleep paralysis, a medical condition that Chelsea herself struggles with, which leads to her waking up and being unable to move, she even went as far as to tell LA Weekly in a recent interview:
"there were times that I would wake up literally thinking someone was in the room, and I'd grab my knife."
Because of this, fear is a recurring emotion throughout the album, this is due to the aforementioned use of drone elements. Her use of distorted guitars, and slow paced percussion makes for a very atmospheric album, one that is both gloomy and depressing. Crazy Love, a track that features Wolfe playing acoustic guitar, as well as Ezra Buchla's viola, is one of the album's most depressing cuts, as the music comes together to create a song that screams sadness.
For those who have heard the singles from the album Carrion Flowers, Iron Moon, and After The Fall, you can know what to expect from Abyss. It's haunting, and it's dark, just like the singles were. You have your more folk inspired tracks, like Crazy Love and Survive, and you have the tracks so heavy and hard hitting that you can't help but feel as if this album belongs in the metal genre, like the first three in the track listing. It's evident when listening to this album, that Chelsea Wolfe is continuing to grow as an artist, but has no plans of solidifying her sound into one specific category. On this album, I finally was able to see what it is that everyone finds themselves infatuated with when it comes to her music, but what's even more outstanding, is what Abyss signifies, and that is that Wolfe is perhaps just now reaching her prime.
Rating: A-
Favorite Tracks: Carrion Flowers, Iron Moon, Dragged Out, Crazy Love, Survive, Color of Blood
Least Favorite Tracks: None
No comments:
Post a Comment