Chelsea Wolfe's 'The Dark' Shifts From Doom to Gothic Folk — SkimNews
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- Chelsea Wolfe released her ninth album 'The Dark,' returning to guitar, bass and drums after 2024's largely electronic 'She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She' (produced by David Sitek), which she felt continually pulled her back to 'a version of my old self'
- The album is produced by Grammy-winning Jennifer Decilveo (whose credits include Hozier and Miley Cyrus) and recorded with longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm, plus guest spots from Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa, former Nine Inch Nails bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck
- Wolfe's 2021 sobriety and move from Los Angeles to the mountains above the city — where she can finally sleep — inform the album's themes of letting go of toxic relationships and old behaviors at age 42
- Reviewer comparisons run the gamut from Annie Lennox and Evanescence to the Cure, with the haunting vocal style described as 'Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser fronting the Sisters of Mercy' on tracks like 'Seethe' and 'Swallower'
- The opener 'Cold' grapples with insomnia from a fracturing relationship, while the folky title track is framed as a 'love letter to the comfort of the black' and 'Death Is Not The End' pairs acoustic tenderness with Finck's guttural, chilling noise
- Wolfe has become the face of a perfume range called Ghosts and is described as 'edging towards the mainstream,' with the reviewer noting several songs 'wouldn't sound incongruous being performed before huge crowds holding phones or lighters in the air' after two decades at 'the culty coal face'
Why it matters: After two decades as a cult artist known for sleep-paralysis and witchcraft-themed drone metal, Wolfe has handed production to a mainstream pop-adjacent collaborator (Decilveo) and recruited marquee guests from Warpaint and Nine Inch Nails. The reviewer argues this ninth album is 'powerful' and 'mature' enough to bring her to 'a wider audience' — a commercially significant pivot for an artist who released her own farewell to her earlier singer-songwriter self years ago.
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