So, I've never thought I had the ability to put into words what I think about Chelsea Wolfe because I don't exactly fit the part of avid fan. I wear a worn pair of faux Converses, usually a hoodie and jeans. In other words, leather doesn't play into my wardrobe at all, nor does sackcloth. I like black but I like to be seen. Not that any of that is really the point, because it's not. Yet, I am an avid fan, having run smack into her when I was exploring the music of Emma Ruth Rundle last year. Of course, I've discovered that that makes sense considering they are both on the Sargent House label and seem to have similar roots in the music they seem to work toward. But where the lines converged, Chelsea seemed to go farther aurally than Rundle would even go. It was like there was the abyss, and Emma ran around it while Chelsea had seemingly plunged right in.
Most of what I was responding to was the early portion of her album, Abyss. But I found some meaty versions of "Feral Love" (Pain is Beauty) and "Pale on Pale" (Apokalypsis). These were entirely unfathomable. The possibility of a performance of these songs, among the ones I found on Abyss, seemed wide enough to create an uproar. The range and pitch of her voice that ascends in aria fashion and the muted strains that cloak the lyrics shade the ghost like quality of the meanings behind them. She has admitted in interviews that she has specifically pushed her way into more personal material that she tries to explore. It should be noted, that she does not concern herself with rhyme in her lyrics, instead working to describe situations, explore feelings, emotions, contrasting clarity and haunting mystery with cacophonies and strains that hover over a crowd like looming clouds. It is a weaving of darkness that feels cool as it is comfortable.
I went to see her show which was in Lincoln, NE. Maybe not one of the best venues (likely not) rigged for sound, but the overall impression was that it worked entirely for Ms. Wolfe. It was dark with an overabundance of smoke pouring from the machines behind the stage to elude a lingering mist, Chelsea is careful, quiet and elicate when she appears on stage. Most of her gestures are geared toward creating mood. If Flannery O'Connor were still alive, she might say that her manners revealed her character, but ultimately, Chelsea makes as little movement as possible and packing as much sound as will be worked from her guitar which she cradles like a child or a lyre, evincing thick growling riffs.
I will note that Chelsea has played with an assortment of musicians who have accompanied her on the last albums over the past decade or so. The bass player is the one I have recognized several times. Ben Chisholm, who has played with her before (and his "fuzzed-to-f-k" as MusicMOH magazine writeer Sam Shephard calls bass riffs). Notable and you would have to forgive me for not nailing down the back up fellas naem but honestly, Jess Gowrie, the drummer who appeared both live and on the Hiss Spun was the only one who really had fans craning their neck to see who was playing behind her. Relentless pounding on the kit which added a veritable punch in what was already a deep carving of the synapses.
Hiss Spun obviously loomed large as the frontispiece from which most of the songs came. She interwove "Spun" and "Psyche 16" into her setlist, as well as blood curdling performances of "The Culling." Other songs from Abyss included the opening anthem "Carrion Flowers", "Iron Moon", "Demons", "After the Fall" and the long time keepsake, "Feral Beauty". The truth becomes obvious, that behind her beautifully placed voice she longs for the next moment to interject into the madness long bending chords, behinf a her hauntingly dark eyes, You can't help but keep the scream inside for the end, There is nothing insincere about Chelsea's music,she is already the stuff of legends and myths with the crowds of fans, who stand naked and hypnotized beefore her every pressing note that she hurls like bolts from the sound both chords and carefully placed distortion.
The more anyone can read about Chelsea, her themes on each of her albums, suddenly they know that this is a musician who has made her own way into a sound and genre that she has carefully chosen. Self-taught to play and gathering around her a host of talented musicians catering their style to meet that of a unique but driven music writer with a powerful ability to transcribing a vision.