Blauerosen

1. Carrion Flowers/2. Iron Moon/3.Dragged Out/4.Maw/5.Grey Days/6. After The Fall/7.Crazy Love/8.Simple Death/9. Survive/10.Color Of Blood/11.Abyss

Release date: August 7, 2015
Sargent House

”Perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.” (Yohji Yamamoto)

As ‘almost disappointing’ as 2014 was in terms of album releases, so mindblowing 2015 is turning out to be. ‘Abyss‘ is the second album in a few months that has such a powerful effect on me. I had to actually take a break of a few days between consecutive listenings of this album in order to try and neutralize its effect on me and escape from its addicting nature…but each time I came back with an increased emotional hunger to listen to it again.

The music up to ‘Abyss’

Chelsea Wolfe, a talented and emotionally rich singer songwriter from Sacramento California, has shaken the ”waters” of dark alternative music in 2010 with her album ‘The Grime And The Glow‘ which followed the rather acoustic album called ‘Mistake In Parting‘  that was self released in 2006. Since 2010 Chelsea Wolfe has released albums in Pendu Sound Recordings and since 2012 her albums have been released by Sargent House. In 2013 Chelsea Wolfe collaborated with King Dude releasing 2 EPs called ‘Sing Songs Together‘ and ‘Sing More Songs Together‘. Her album ‘Pain Is Beauty‘ has attracted the attention of an increasing audience in Europe and was praised as her most crystallized album of her career up to that point .

“I was so struck by that visual: the drop into the abyss of one’s own mind, allowing yourself to feel things you’ve hidden away, bringing them front and center. That became the goal of this album…hazy afterlife…an inverted thunderstorm . . . the dark backward . . . the abyss of time.” (Chelsea Wolfe about ‘Abyss‘)

‘Abyss‘ is an invocation of your deepest and dubious feelings. This is the most conceptual, the ‘heaviest’ and the darkest album by Chelsea Wolfe to date! It is impossible to listen to this album and not have the feeling that it is night time even during a sunny morning. The feelings are always more intense at night but trust me, whenever you decide to listen to this album, its impact will be the same and more fierce by the second. Have you ever wondered if there is a sound that can express emotional desperation in all its heaviness and complexity? Do you ever think whether music and singing can embrace all that is futile in human existence? If yes, then you have already made a big step towards this album even before it has been conceived as an idea.If not then be prepared to feel really uneasy…

‘Abyss‘ is the accumulation of all those uncomfortable sonic and verbal elements and their transformation into a some sort of imaginative lasso that traps everyone inside it for almost one hour. If you are tempted to resist this, don’t! Besides, even if you tried to resist, the numbing effect that the first three songs have, wouldn’t give you any time to succeed. For almost one hour you will experience the pulsating rhythms of your own abyss as this album aims to shake your whole being and keep you afloat in nothingness exactly as the image of its cover suggests.

“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” (Chelsea Wolfe about ‘Abyss’),

‘Abyss‘ or how uneasiness becomes attractive

‘Carrion Flowers‘, ‘Iron Moon‘ and ‘Dragged Out‘, the three songs that mark the beginning of this album, prove to be ‘heavier’ than the rest of the album and this seems to have been done on purpose…Listening to them feels as a free fall into a space with unknown dimensions and characteristics. All you need to do is let go of all your emotional doubts and close your eyes…

‘I’m screaming but I can’t wake up….‘ (lyrics from ‘Simple Death‘)

The first two songs are in charge of ‘dragging’ us into this unfamiliar, uneasy, emotional place. ‘Dragged Out‘, the third song of the album seems to have been placed at exactly the right place at exactly the right time. It is almost ironic to actually feel violently dragged out just before this song begins…After the first three songs you can be sure that you will be in the right emotional state not just for appreciating the rest of the album but for experiencing its strength at its maximum. ‘Maw‘ is a song with a different energy than the ones that precede it. One could say that it is calmer as the vocals seem to have broken through the noisy background and they can be heard more clearly. Just as you think you can relax from the ‘shock’ of the first three songs, the almost lamenting distant vocals, a characteristic of this album, reappear simulating the distant cry of a hyena from a confined space. This is a song that feels like a powerful thought trying to break all barriers, real or fictitious and arrive in all its strength to the heart of the person that it targets. ‘I’ve been waiting in silence are you sleeping…?‘…the way these words are performed sends chills up my spine instantly every time I listen to this song. ‘Maw‘ and ‘After The Fall‘ are turning out to be my favourite songs from this majestic album as they both left me with the impression that I woke up from a tormenting nightmare.

One of characteristics of this album is the surprising, uneasy yet provocative rhythmic and stylistic alterations that happen in all the songs more than twice. These alterations are more powerful in ‘After The Fall‘ as they happen at 3.48 and 4.19. You will be so excited during the last 2’ in the song ‘Survive‘ that your heart will struggle to stay at its place. These powerful interchangeable rhythms have an almost orgasmic effect if you are open to the experience and make sure that you are placed in a trance inside your emotional abyss. If this song doesn’t make you feel ecstatic I really don’t know what will.

The sound and its details

The sound of ‘Abyss’ is deeper and feels more ‘spacious’ than in any of the previous albums by Chelsea Wolfe.  Sometimes the noisy background dominates fully the atmosphere as if the enveloping chaos becomes too thick for a ray of light to cut through it. The ethereal and mesmerizing voice of Chelsea Wolfe, which at times is completely covered by the drums and percussion, cause this album to act as a kaleidoscope, offering multiple interpretations of a dystopian reality from various perspectives. Echoes are extensively used in this album and together with the spacious and the deep sound of the whole album, they accentuate the heaviness and the evocative nature of the atmosphere. I could describe its effect as similar to the music of David Lynch and the atmosphere of his films where our senses of time and space are so skillfully distorted. I find it hard to listen to ‘Simple Death‘ and not imagine being in the room with Dorothy and Frank in Blue Velvet?

For ‘Abyss‘ Chelsea Wolfe and her fellow musicians ( Ben Chisholm multi insturmentalist and co-writer, Dylan Fujioka, Ezra Buchla (viola), Mike Sullivan (Russian Circles) ) collaborated with John Congleton who has been involved in the recording and mixing of the album ‘Be Kind’ by Swans, has produced albums by St Vincent as well as ‘Angel Guts: Red Classroom’ by Xiu Xiu.

The instruments and their roles

Sounds that resemble heavy machinery in action are combined with the evocative vocals and draw us in the abyss more and more. If the first few minutes of ‘Iron Moon‘ and ‘Dragged Out‘ sound like a doom metal song with heavy and shrilling guitars, the soothing guitars that follow aim to bring you temporarily to a calmer place for just half a minute.

The harsh guitars that were present in her sound in ‘The Grime And The Glow‘ , have now taken a completely different and even more ‘evil’ role contributing to the creation of a dystopian atmosphere by challenging and even defying the limits of all the known ‘heavy’ music styles (i.e.’Survive‘).  These guitars along with the drums form now part of a heavy and noisy multilayered sonic background. This distorted and noisy basis is the ‘heart’ of the whole album as it seems to be the basis from which the thread of emotions of each song is being unreeled.The percussion have a primary role in the whole album nicely giving space to the viola and the keyboards when needed for example after 1.21 in ‘Grey Days‘, after 1.16 in ‘Crazy Love‘ and at the end of ‘Abyss‘. The role of the viola and the keyboards in the album is to accentuate even more the ominous character of the atmosphere.

You will notice throughout this album a recurring sound that resembles heavy breathing… (e.g. in ‘Carrion Flowers‘, after 1’ in ‘After The Fall‘, during the last 2’ of ‘Survive‘). This is the sound that creates and even multiplies your own heavy breathing…don’t resist it…once the album is over you will end up with a very beautiful/strange feeling.

The songs of ‘Abyss’ finish with an abysmal song which has a rhythm of different characteristics compared to all the previous songs. It is an even more uneasy sound as it is defined by an almost disharmonic melody played in piano. The effect it has is making you feel as if you are endlessly swirling inside a reef as the hyena stops and is withdrawn to her lair until next time…

Blaue Rosen

We will have the honour of seeing Chelsea Wolfe perform live at Islington Assembly Hall on November 22nd 2015, two years after her gig at the Electric Ballroom with Russian Circles. For tickets please visit this link: http://www.seetickets.com/event/chelsea-wolfe/islington-assembly-hall/901034