release date: Sep. 3, 2013
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,65]
producer: Chelsea Wolfe, Ben Chisholm
label: Sargent House - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Feral Love" - 2. "We Hit a Wall" - 3. "House of Metal" (4 / 5) (live on KEXP) - 6. "Sick" (live on KEXP) - 9. "Ancestors, the Ancients" - 10. "They'll Clap When You're Gone" - 11. "The Waves Have Come"
3d studio album by American soloist Chelsea (Joy) Wolfe is her second album on Sargeant House and her second to be co-produced with Ben Chisholm, who's also credited various instrumentation and as album mixer. Chisholm also featured playing piano on two songs on Wolfe's debut album The Grime and the Glow (Dec. 2010). Actually, the album could be seen has her fifth, as she released two self-released albums as of 2006 and 2009 respectively, but these were distributed as CDr albums only.
Musically, Wolfe has always stood with one foot in a darkwave and gothic rock corner of the alt. rock scene, although, all of her now three studio albums are diverse in their individual sound. In that regard, the debut stands as her most clean expression of a lo-fi, alt. rock release bonding with an experimental scene, and her sophomore album Ἀποκάλυψις (aka Apokalypsis from Aug. 2011) is stronger shaped by alt.rock and darkwave which brings memories of PJ Harvey and Dead Can Dance but which also pointed in many directions. Pain Is Beauty is then again a new product with a new focus point. It's primarily an album that blends elements of darkwave and industrial metal, where Wolfe comes out as stronger and more distinct vocalist of her own, although, on the fine "House of Metal" she does sound like influenced by Siouxsie Sioux, but overall, the album appears as her most coherent album to date. There's an underlying ethereal tone throughout the album - even on more direct metal tracks, and perhaps this is what makes it all feel like one organism. My initial thoughts were kind of bland, and I didn't hear any distinct songs but already on a second spin, I found it opening up to an original sound that can only be described as Chelsea Wolfe, and which makes me abstain from further comparison. What's quite remarkable here is Wolfe's try on various styles and sounds but with a result that is anything but incoherent - her moody vocal and the spacious, yet simple arrangements and tight production keeps everything together.
Pain Is Beauty is a fascinating album.
