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Review: 'Wolfe, Chelsea'
'Abyss'   

-  Album: 'Abyss' -  Label: 'Sargent House'
-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave' -  Release Date: '7th August 2015'

Our Rating:
It perhaps goes without saying that any album should stand on its own merit, the songs and the performance functioning as works of art in their own right. But the context to ‘Abyss’ gives additional depth and meaning to the material, and the fact that singer / songwriter Chelsea Wolfe suffers from sleep paralysis has long been something that’s influenced her output as she explores that strange intersection of the conscious and the unconscious. Until now, this has been a rather subconscious influence, but on ‘Abyss’, she places her focus squarely on the space between wakefulness and sleep.

“Abyss is meant to have the feeling of when you’re dreaming, and you briefly wake up, but then fall back asleep into the same dream, diving quickly into your own subconscious,” she explains.

‘Carrion Flowers’ emerges – just – from a woozy, swampy bass grind reminiscent of early Swans and finds Chelsea wandering desolate and detached, an ethereal vocal floating in a nightmarish noise that builds to a disorientating cacophony.

‘Iron Moon’ is a powerful, turbulent ballad played to extreme volume, the quiet passages yielding to punishing bursts of guitar that crash in like tidal waves and hit like a body blow. There’s a grinding, grunge vibe to ‘Dragged Out’, and again, a mammoth bass sound dominates a queasy soundtrack to a waking nightmare.

‘Maw’ is without question one the most powerfully majestic songs I’ve heard in years: against a backdrop that melds melting shoegaze guitars to an industrial percussion and throbbing bass, Chelsea’s vocal soars magnificently.

‘Grey Day’s is pure Cure, and paired with Wolfe’s vocals. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Cranes and Zola Jesus, and ‘After the Fall’ redefines epic, a dense, undulating wall of sound that contrasts with the dreamy vocals.

The acoustic ‘Crazy Love’ not only provides contrast, but is the first and only song that sounds like it was made by human hands. But, yet again, extraneous noise and layers of texture build and take things to a level that has an impact beyond mere music. It’s utterly gripping.

The lugubrious ‘Survive’ is striped back and quietly intense, at least until four minutes in, when martial drums thunder through a surging wave of squalling noise. Powerful I an understatement: I feel the need to lie down to endure its sheer force.

It’s dark stuff that runs thick and deep, penetrating the psyche and resonating uniquely. Not just one of the most intensely powerful albums I’ve heard this year, but ever.

Chelsea Wolfe Online
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Wolfe, Chelsea - Abyss