Chelsea Wolfe
Birth Of Violence

This album arises from the need to unplug. It comes from the desire to stop, abandon the chaotic and neurotic life, and regenerate in some place far from civilization. Birth Of Violence is the new album by Chelsea Wolfe, and it's exactly what one would expect from a musician who spends some time away from everything and everyone. The songs of Birth Of Violence were born last winter when the singer-songwriter from Sacramento relocated to her home nestled in the woods of Northern California. Tracks born from the intense scent of conifers, the strong flavor of snow-covered soil, and the acrid smell of wood in the fireplace.

The vibrant folk of "The Mother Road" opens the album exemplary. A poetic and intense sparse and essential track, built on the delicate melody of the acoustic guitar and a tumultuous and hypnotic rhythm. Chelsea's voice floats among bursts of noise that hover in the song, then merging with the explosion of strings in the final part. The following "American Darkness" seems like a hybrid between a Leonard Cohen song and a piece by more recent Radiohead. A slow rusted ballad, with brushed drums and a sweet, elegant keyboard. Here, Chelsea is angelic, narrating a story of love and freedom of an elderly couple dancing together for the last time before death comes to separate them.

Inspired by the folk singer-songwriters of the seventies, Birth Of Violence is a return to the origins for Chelsea Wolfe. After the metal binge of the previous two albums (Abyss from 2015 and Hiss Spun from 2017), there is a desire to turn the page and go back. No metallic guitars or heavy doom sounds here, but only the refined gothic folk with which Chelsea debuted. A dark and skeletal folk, which this time indeed grapples with the metal sounds of the recent past, which leave a trace, still felt beneath the skin. Implicit metal reminiscences this time, but inherent in the whole album, in every track. Demonstrating this comes "Deranged For Rock & Roll", an extraordinary western ballad from whose wounds, however, blood infected by metal atmospheres flows. The track is incredible, goosebumps-worthy, one of the best ever written by Chelsea Wolfe. A very black and nervous folk marked by electric guitars, yet with magnetic elegance and refinement.

Produced by Ben Chisholm (a long-time collaborator of Chelsea), the album is clean, the melodies are deep, and Chelsea's voice (ranging from infernal lows to a celestial falsetto) is always incredibly intense, in the foreground. A sparse album but with very accentuated sonic roundness. A minimal album, yet it rises from the stomach to the heart with melodic explosions that fill the brain. Acoustic but dark, metallic and western, Birth Of Violence shows the skill of a singer-songwriter at the peak of her inspiration.

"Erde" is a macabre ballad that seems to emerge from the dark recesses of the earth's core, then comes out into the open on a raw, dark, and damp surface. "When Anger Turns To Honey" is a piece that brought to mind the most hypnotic moments of the Swans. It moves slowly like the flames that consume wood. A bare folk that creaks, grinds, burns very slowly, and then leaves nothing but embers. In "Highway", Chelsea is alone with her acoustic guitar. The synths, unexpected and spectral, bloom like winter flowers, dark buds in a desolate still life.

Birth Of Violence is simply magnificent. An album of enormous beauty, elegant and saturated with emotions. A return to folk for Chelsea Wolfe, but still tied to the metal sounds of her previous two albums. Visceral and enchanting, Birth Of Violence is extraordinarily magnetic. As soon as it ends, it makes you want to listen to it again from the beginning. It hypnotizes, moves, makes us detach our mind and soul from our chaotic world, and for almost 45 minutes, immerses us in a naked, sparse, violent, yet damn sensual nature.