Chelsea Wolfe 
Abyss (Sargent House)

To love Chelsea Wolfe is to play with the dark passenger that travels within us all. She’s like Elvira, Sylvia Plath, and Joni Mitchell all rolled into one—a creature at once mythical and larger than life yet grounded by her convictions.

Producer Ben Chisholm, who’s forged from the Trent Reznor mould, helped inject more electronics into Wolfe’s sound while playing synth, bass, and piano as well as handling the photography and layout for her fifth album. Abyss has the feel of a rock opera—it marches with a deliberate pace in a journey through post-grunge, gothic folk, industrial, and baroque pop that’s unified by the surreal terror of Wolfe.

The dissonant strings blending their descending glissandi with screams that give the impression of people falling to their doom in “Crazy Love” is just one of the brilliant moments when her theme and sound wrap around each other.

Yet for all of her dead-serious imagery and heavy, evocative instrumentals, there’s a vulnerability in Wolfe’s vocals that draws the listener in closer. This is most apparent on “Iron Moon”, its gently plucked melody, sparse drums, and near-whisper vocals offset by a doom-guitar dirge and distorted-howl chorus. It’s easy to lose oneself in this Abyss, which is simply spellbinding stuff.