Chelsea Wolfe’s steady descent into goth-metal territory has produced some of the most wicked iconography in music video history. Her latest, “The Culling,” is an eerie barrage of gothic symbols: a sea of candles, white roses, red cloaks, a dead pig’s head, and Chelsea caked in face powder and smoky eye shadow, choking up black entrails. It’s all shot in a serene, collage style that’s both calming and overwhelming all at once. Overall, it’s some oppressive stuff.
Chelsea Wolfe’s “The Culling” from the album “Hiss Spun,” released September 22nd, 2017 on Sargent House Records.
For years, it has been clear that Chelsea Wolfe is a mega-talent with major musical ambitions. You can hear it in the progression of her full-length albums. On 2010’s The Grime and the Glow, she created a particularly dark strain of folk music in glorious lo-fi. The next year, she upped both the drama and the production value on Apokalypsis. And then, for 2013’s Pain Is Beauty and 2015’s Abyss, she began introducing more electronic and noise elements. On Hiss Spun, Chelsea Wolfe’s songs are as heavy and melodic and weird and magical as ever
The word ‘artist’ is used with witless abandon in music, but with Californian songwriter Chelsea Wolfe it feels wholly appropriate. Wolfe is an originator and creator, over five albums she has constructed an intricate, dark body of work, one capable of crossing vast spaces, from gothic folk to black metal, while still feeling part of the same awe-inspiring aesthetic.
2015’s Abyss saw the Sargent House-signed songwriter develop a cavernous dynamic presence through gigantic, dystopian riffs, all contrasted with a tortured Cocteau Twins vocal. Now she has returned with Hiss Spun – a record that bathes in the bleakness of the current global outlook and delves ever deeper into musical extremes.
It was only a matter of time before Chelsea Wolfe up and recorded a metal album. “Hiss Spun” is, more or less, that album. Produced by Kurt Ballou of Converge and featuring guests such as Sumac’s Aaron Turner and Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen, it’s a set of loud, blistering, powerful dirges and rippers that end up being some of the most immediate tracks in Wolfe’s repertoire. Wolfe exorcises some hard-rocking demons in “Vex” and “Hiss Spun,” while retaining some industrial darkwave eeriness in “Offering,” though it’s an album short on songs that aren’t standouts. It’s a weird irony that her most explicitly metal album to date is also her catchiest, but why question synchronicity when it comes out sounding this great.
In a way, Hiss Spun is an album many years in the making. It’s a culmination of important people in my life, and a culmination of my musical influences and memories. It represents a certain kind of self-acceptance I’ve long strived for as an introverted, anxiety-riddled person. This album is about opening up and accepting the mess of yourself. There can be a strength in embracing your feral side, and it was fun to write some songs that were a lot more in-your-face and confrontational than I’ve done before.
The catalyst for this album was the reunion of my friend and drummer Jess Gowrie and I two and a half years ago. We had a rock band together back in Sacramento 10 years ago, and she taught me how to be a good front-person of a band and introduced me to a lot of the music that became very influential on me over the years. When I left that band to pursue my own project, it was difficult and we didn’t speak for 7 years, but when we reunited, it was clear that our musical chemistry was still there, strong as ever, so just as quickly as we became friends again, we started writing songs together again and her presence became an integral part of this new music and new era.
At my side for many years has been Ben Chisholm – multi-instrumentalist, composer, and another friend who has lent me much musical inspiration and given me strength when I wanted to shy away from the spotlight. Ben has worked with me as a co-writer and co-producer since Apokalypsis era, always recognizing that at the end of the day I follow my vision uncompromisingly.
Adding Troy Van Leeuwen’s singular guitar style to the twisted emotions of these songs was a welcome finishing touch, along with the ominous playing of Bryan Tulao.
Honesty in music has always been of grave importance to me, and this album is brutally honest. At times I’ve felt that my music is quite genderless, but many songs on Hiss Spun are very much from the perspective of a woman, confronting the chaos of the world with her own internal storm. There are stories of addiction, withdrawal, family history, lost love, instincts, cycles, and rage. Musically, I pushed my voice as far as I could, I sought out guitar tones that sounded like motorcycle engines, and specifically recorded with Kurt Ballou to capture the deep bass and pounding, energetic drums in the way he does so well.
There are repeated words throughout this album.. small words with big meanings: flux, hiss, welt, groan. Flux represents movement and flow, hiss is the positive life force, welt is the brutality of life, and groan represents sensuality and death. I’ve long had an affinity for white noise and there are moments on Hiss Spun dedicated to it, using sampled sounds from my own life as well as from history. Carl Sagan said that 1% of TV and radio static is relic sound from the Big Bang, and I find that strange connection to the origin both compelling and comforting.
Though this record can get dark, it can also be freeing. I hope you enjoy Hiss Spun. Thank you so much for your support and love.. I can feel it. And if you’ve gotten this far, thank you for reading!
Chelsea
Chelsea Wolfe’s “16 Psyche” from the album “Hiss Spun”, out September 22nd, 2017 on Sargent House Records. Featuring: Troy Van Leeuwen on lead guitar.
The forthcoming album from Chelsea Wolfe “Hiss Spun” is expected to hit stores September 22nd through Sargent House Records. The 12-track collection, the gothic rocker’s sixth album overall following 2015’s “Abyss” is being teased today with a song called “Vex”.
Not unlike recent lead single “16 Psyche” this new offering sees ChelseaWolfe again drawing inspiration from metal music, in particular hints of Deftones’ heavy material. The musician received additional assistance in the studio, with Queens Of The Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leewen contributing guitar and Aaron Turner of Old Man Gloom providing extra vocals.
Wolfe discussed the track at length in a press statement:
“Every day, at dawn and dusk, a mysterious hum resounds in the deep sea for about an hour. The source of this hum is unknown, but it may be a kind of instinctual guide to the creatures who live in those dark depths, to rise and feed, surviving another day.
I follow my own hum, pushing forward despite anxieties, nightmares, and scavengers that try to pull me down into their depths. I also acknowledge my own fragility in contrast to my own strength and anger.
‘Vex’ began almost as a black metal song, with a pummeling blast beat, then Ben (Chisholm) and I stripped it back to a more industrial electronic sound. Once we were in the studio, Jess Gowrie’s drums and Troy Van Leeuwen’s guitar parts began to shepherd it back toward its heavy origins.
I knew from the beginning that I wanted Aaron Turner’s voice somewhere on this album, and could hear him in my head on ‘Vex.’ I had already recorded my vocals for the song but decided to send it to Aaron without them on. Happily, the first time we played it back with both vocal parts they fit together in a very compelling way.”
Chelsea Wolfe has just announced a new album. On September 22nd, she’ll release Hiss Spun via Sargent HouseRecords . The album was recorded by Kurt Ballou of Converge, and it features contributions from Queensof the Stone Age’sTroy Van Leeuwen and Sumac’s Aaron Turner.
“The album is cyclical, like me and my moods,” Wolfe says of the album in a press release. “Cycles, obsession, spinning, centrifugal force—all with gut feelings as the center of the self. And its an album that Wolfe sees as a kind of exorcism. Im at odds with myself…”
Wolfe has released the first single, “16 Psyche,” which you can hear below. She’s also announced a fall tour, all dates of which feature opener Youth Code.
From the album “Hiss Spun”, out September 22nd, 2017 on Sargent House. Featuring Troy Van Leeuwen on lead guitar.
The Fat Angel Sings 