#38



Chelsea Wolfe
Hiss Spun

This actually took me three listens to fully appreciate. I've been a fan of hers for a while. I've seen her live. Abyss from two years ago was one of my favorite releases of the year. This however on the first listen just didn't grab me. It didn't grab me until about the middle of the third listen during the track Static Hum where I realized she is doing so much more on this record than on her last. It made me think of her live performance where you just had this real blanket of dread covering you at all time. She's been building to this full on doom sound and it hit me during that track and, well, now it's on my list. It took a while but I'm glad she's here.

I think my first exposure to her was her album "Ἀποκάλυψις" which was almost lo fi dirty gothy garage tunes. Her last two albums have just fully gone dark and brooding. She's like a creature waiting in the forest now. It's dark, you can't see her at first, but she's there, and she's f*cking powerful. The albums second track 16 Psyche is like a huge loud sludgy nightmare of a song and I love it.

The songwriting leaves a lot to be desired which is why this isn't higher up but the atmosphere she creates on this brings me back to when I saw her and how I loved every minute of it.

Am I goth now? Part of me is I guess.

Anyway, rad rad record.