BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition October 2017

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun Wolves in the Throne Room - Thrice Woven The World is a Beautiful Place $ I am No Longer Afraid to Die Dana Wylie - The Earth That You’re Made Of
to wondering exactly how much of the album is
autobiographical and how much is hyperbole.
Either way, MASSEDUCTION is another delightful
curveball in a career full of them.
• Max Hill
Chelsea Wolfe
Hiss Spun
Sargent House
While gothic rock might not pique the interest of
many outside of a few choice cliques, the talent
behind California’s Chelsea Wolfe is something to
be admired, and on Hiss Spun, her third album on
the Sargent House label, she effortlessly transcends
a genre so mired in tropes.
From the moment guitar-feedback descends
into industrial sludge during the first few seconds
of Hiss Spun, Wolfe has you by the goddamn
throat, flinging you through 12 tracks that burst
with unbridled doom (“Spun”), undulating
shoegaze-adjacent haze (“Vex”), diegetic ambience
(“Strain”), and echoing neofolk (“Two Spirit”).
But the most admirable facet of Hiss Spun is
how each moment, be it a dissonant chord or
an ethereal whisper, is complimented by the
dichotomy between the darkness of the sound and
the brightness of Wolfe’s powerful voice, at times
all-encompassing and at others paper-thin.
There’s really no qualms to be had over the
album’s 48-minute runtime, with each track having
its place and purpose, and never once coming off
as jarring when Wolfe decides to switch up the
presentation from doom-and-gloom to plaintive
and shimmering.
The only thing that can be said about Wolfe’s
sound is that it, seemingly, can not be replicated,
and with Zola Jesus (nom de guerre of artist Nicole
Hummel) staking her claim as the top quasi-goth
act of the year with the respectably solid Okovi
earlier this month, it may just be Wolfe who
ultimately usurps the throne.
• Alec Warkentin
Wolves in the Throne Room
Thrice Woven
Artemesia
With the new Wolves in the Throne Room album, we
witness a band returning to conjuring the familiar,
epic soundscapes that put them on the map over 10
years ago. The album, Thrice Woven, marks the first
album in six years that the band has played in the
atmospheric metal stylings that won them so many
fans when they first emerged. Luckily, the album
more than stands up next to the bands stellar backcatalog.
Within moments of the album beginning,
the band summons an ethereal storm of layered
atmosphere, featuring encompassing walls of soft
guitar fuzz creating a beautiful and abrasive wash
of sound reminiscent of a spring rainstorm. When
the metal thundershowers subside, the album drifts
effortlessly into quiet, tender arrangements of choirs,
delicate chimes, synthesizers and acoustic guitars,
giving the album a very otherworldly and ritualistic
sensation. Whether the album is displaying charging,
epic riffs or dreamlike, atmospheric beauty, the
album is one of the most well thought out and wellconstructed
extreme metal albums to emerge this
year. When the quiet winds and sounds of rain swell
to draw the album to a close at the end of the final
track, it feels as though the band has taken you on a
journey, and not one that will be forgotten any time
soon. Strongly Recommended. • Greg Grose
The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am
No Longer Afraid to Die
Always Foreign
Epitaph
Easily the most noteworthy group of emorevivalists
to come out of the genre’s most recent
resurgence, The World is a Beautiful Place & I
Am No Longer Afraid to Die (TWIABP) have
managed to carve quite the niche among fans of
whining-yet-urgent lyricism and winding post-rock
interludes. Their latest album, Always Foreign, feels
more like an homage to those less-than-stellar acts
in a movement that undoubtedly has the capacity
for greatness.
The main issue with Always Foreign is a problem
that accosted many of the bands that came up
in emo’s third wave — particularly those able to
hang on until the late 00’s — in which the move
from a more raw, unfiltered, and abrasive sound to
something more commercial caused the emotional
edge to be sanded down to nothingness.
While Always Foreign is still a joy to listen to, it
finds the group moving even further away from
their resonant post-rock-adjacent roots into the
more pillowed-production of latter-era Epitaph
bands.
On the whole this may seem like a minor trifle
(bands change! bands grow!), but it must be
mentioned that emo as genre is as reliant on its
instrumental power as it is its lyricism, and Always
Foreign comes off more as pop-punk-lite when
compared to the resonant high-points of 2013’s
Whenever, If Ever (“Getting Sodas”) or 2015’s
Harmlessness (“January 10th, 2014,” “Willie (For
Howard)”).
However, the album still has its standouts,
particularly opener “I’ll Make Everything,” rousing
centrepiece “Dillon And Her Son,” and the
expanding seven-minute epic “Marine Tigers.”
In short, Always Foreign is a safe release from a
band who can get away with taking more risks, and
hopefully will next time around.
• Alec Warkentin
Dana Wylie
The Earth That You’re Made Of
Independent
Edmonton’s Dana Wylie follows up her 2014
release The Sea And The Sky, a low-key acoustic
folk record, with a more expansive sound on The
Earth That You’re Made Of. Wylie brings in horns
and jazzy pop to her expertly composed numbers,
giving the record an immediate Carole King vibe.
The title track may be the best example of this,
mellow horn lines over a simmering rhythm,
piano and Wurlizter drifting in an out of the mix
make the cut feel like an early ‘70s Philadelphia
singer-songwriter number. “Ten Thousand Miles”
is longing and yearning, and ultimately accepting
of the distance that grows between lovers. Harry
Gregg’s production with Wylie is a subtle affair.
There is some easy-going Motown in spaces, never
too brassy on the horn parts, and Wylie’s voice
lands gently on catchy smart melodies that never
sacrifice pop sing ability for instrumental heroics.
“You Are Good, You Are Kind” brings all the pieces
together in a sweetly sung churchy lift, and “When
You Are Old” features Wylie’s electric guitar style,
a hybrid folk finger picking style moving melodies
throughout notes ringing in chords.
• Mike Dunn
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