i started writing this back in the middle of october and didn't finish it because i wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. i missed the show in detroit for a number of reasons, and i thought i made the right choice at the time, but i don't know if i wish i was there or not.

i did see her perform at the height of her popularity in mid-2016. my first exposure to chelsea wolfe was actually all the way back in 2011, though, and i will eventually post a review of apokalypsis that was written soon after it was released, so i'm not at all taken aback by the retreat to a less grunge-y sound; if anything, it was the loudness that caught me off guard when i caught up with her again c. 2015. she's a quality songwriter one way or the other, and it really shouldn't be the guitar tone or the guitar volume that determines whether you're into what she's doing or not - it should be the atmosphere, the presentation and, for a lot of people, the lyrics. if this was just loud rock music to you, you only got it on the surface.

that said, this is a gamble for her, and she is going to lose the interest of a lot of people.

the question for me is whether the songwriting holds up, and it does seem to on first listen. the tonal collapse in the title track is pretty powerful, and the the highlight on the first listen through. on subsequent listens, what actually appears to define the record is it's stasis, rather than it's sudden shift - she's actually not doing much different here, she's just turned the volume down a little. this creates the perception of being different, when it actually mostly isn't. rather, if you were to chart the path she's taken, her path into rock music actually coincided with a move away from the kind of cathartic pagan presentation she started with, and into a kind of more normal "goth" rock, so that when she's taken the distortion out at the end, what's left is just a kind of sombre pop-rock. this is less a return to her roots, and more like an existentialist taylor swift on heroin. and, one of the things i noticed when i saw her come in to the show without her stage makeup is that she's not actually like this in real life, she just plays the part on tour - that she's just deranged for rock and roll. but, they all are.

so, i'm going to conclude it's actually a pretty good record, after all, if you like the style, even if it takes a few listens to recalibrate. there are points that remind me of the smashing pumpkins' adore, which may generate some snickers and dropped jaws when presented as a compliment, but the fans liked that one. it was the stuff after it that got really awful really fast....

i skipped the show because i thought it would be boring, and maybe my intuition was right. but, i suspect there was a song or two - a few moments - that were worth the price of admission on their own. and, you can ask around.

i hope she surprises me, but it's hard to follow this kind of artistic shift, and it usually signals creative death. so, even if you're not that keen on this, you should catch her while you can, if you want to. because the next one may be even more like taylor swift....

https://chelseawolfe.bandcamp.com/album/birth-of-violence