Album of the day: Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis

Lovingly pinched from Pitchfork: The image that Chelsea Wolfe projects dovetails with the general aesthetic put forth by her label, Pendu NYC. Granted, it’d take the tinniest of ears to conflate Wolfe’s music with the witch-house stylings of Mater Suspiria Vision or White Ring. Also, while her music is caustic and challenging in its own way, the semi-industrial loop-heavy aTelecine runs laps around Wolfe in that department.

Still, the image of her on the cover of Apokalypsis with whited-out eyes, coupled with her fondness for gothic and Greek typefaces, and choice of cover material (particularly her take on Burzum’s ‘Black Spell of Destruction’), makes her a perfect fit for Pendu’s combination of high art / fashion / horror / goth signifiers (particularly of an early-to-mid-1970s, European vintage).

The first track on Apokalypsis (‘Primal/Carnal’) is a near-perfect apotheosis of this entire ideal, as Wolfe– underneath a layer of static and fuzz that ages the clip by a good 20 years– growls and gurgles like a woman literally possessed. Once you move past this horrific introduction, though, Apokalypsis turns out to be a kind of book completely different from what its cover promises.

The title of the album refers to the Greek root of the world “apocalypse”, the root meaning “lifting of the veil.” Folks not enamored with the way Apokalypsis was recorded– an improvement only when compared to Wolfe’s first album, The Grime and the Glow– might feel like the “lo-fi” vibe on some of these tracks is one veil too many, but that choice helps as much as it hinders.

Continue reading: Chelsea Wolfe: Apokalypsis | Album Reviews | Pitchfork.

Tags: Album of the day, Apokalypsis, Chelsea Wolfe, David Raposa, Pendu NYC, pitchfork

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 1:29 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.