Over the decade, Californian Chelsea Wolfe has made a series of brilliant recordings: The Grime and the Glow (2010), Apokalypsis (2011), Pain Is Beauty (2013), Abyss (2015), Hiss Spun (2017), and Birth of Violence (2019). The 2013 release serves as a perfect illustration of the great beauty generated by pain and confusion: the soloist’s nuanced and powerful voice, the marked contrasts between celestial melodies and hellish harmonies, between delicate percussions and violent hammering, between folk and hardcore, between instrumental and digital. Chelsea Wolfe’s work is marked by hybridizations magnificent despite their apparent strangeness, eluding any direct comparisons.
