4 out of 5

Label: Sargent House

Produced by: Ben Chisholm (produced by), Kurt Ballou (recorded by)

A heavy, swinging hammer of Siouxie howls and blazing low end riffage – courtesy of recorder Kurt Ballou and producer Ben Chisholm – Chelsea Wolfe’s followup to her metal ante-up Abyss goes even further in that direction, but sidesteps that album’s more groove-based momentum for a much more directly somber vibe that feels better aligned with Wolfe’s folk origins and, in retrospect, signaled her return to that sound or then-forthcoming albums. But for those who appreciated the artist’s dive into harsher tonal realms – the waves of distortion; the booming beat – Hiss Spun is the pinnacle of that era of Chelsea’s works, if still occasionally at odds with her writing style and a preference for keeping her voice focused in the mix.

The thing is: I don’t know that Wolfe’s chosen vocal style of breathy singing is especially grabbing on its own, and is better elevated by the downbeat melodies and her passionate lyrics, and the crispness of the riffs, and especially Jess Gowrie’s pummeling drumming; this means that I’ve often found Chelsea’s music – as it’s gotten louder – to be both excellent doomy folk music and heavy sludge goth rock, but not both at the same time. There’s just a slight bit of divide between the styles that prevents the music from pushing consistently over the finish line, witnessed in a lot of bridges / codas that undermine an ultimate moment in a track, but work just fine for a folk song. Abyss leaned slightly into a “poppier” song structure than on Hiss as a way around this discrepancy; I think the formula here hits harder, but several tracks there’s an ultimate version of it that exists just a mix away, or if only one section was excised to tighten it up.

Countering this, though: the moments that soar, soar, and maybe unsurprisingly given my above critique, that happens when Wolfe either gives over more to folk or just lets her compatriots go buck wild alongside her, with vocals dipping into atmospherics (the reactive howls on 16 Psyche, for example). While this maybe suggests that having Isis guy Aaron Turner guest star with growling might be a high point, it’s… not. It’s one of the album’s clearer mismatches, but it’s kinda silly cute at the same time (disrupting the weighty mass of Wolfe’s lyrical contemplations on individuality and agency, but nonetheless – cute, in a screamy kinda way).

I realize this sounds very mixed, but Hiss Spun is an example of when the impressiveness of the package only merits more scrutiny. There was a brief trend of female-fronted metal at this time that gave Abyss a moderate bandwagon feel, and I was curious – maybe skeptical of – how this album would continue that. But although the synthesis of Wolfe’s folk leanings and the Ballou-enhanced grit is imperfect, it’s impactful maybe for that same “offness,” and displays passion and emotion from its performers at all levels; when all of that aligns – which is quite often – it’s a striking, original work