Category: Sargent House

Pain Is Beauty is an eerily gorgeous album from artist Chelsea Wolfe. Returning with bandmates Ben Chisolm (who co-produced), Kevin Dockter, and Dylan Fujioka, Wolfe takes elements of last year’s Unknown Rooms, mixes in some of 2011’s Apokolypsis, and then integrates all it into a really interesting brew of music.

Wolfe opens her latest with “Feral Love”, which lives up to the title. The entire song is an exercise in creating primitive tensions via repetition and volume manipulation. A constant distorted bass drum anchors the tune, while varied levels of synths and distortion pop in and out. “We Hit A Wall” is Wolfe going huge. Drums endlessly echo, bass chords ring out, and Wolfe sings as though she was recorded in a deep cave at the bottom of the world. “The Warden” comes back to the Apokolypsis style electronica, while “Destruction Makes The World Burn Brighter” is Wolfe’s version of a sixties soul love song put through a filter of the world ending.

“Sick” finds Wolfe riding a musical wave of nausea. That feeling we get when our equilibrium is off, and the world is moving up and down and all around us. That’s “Sick”. The way Wolfe attacks the vocals against the constant ebb and flow of the soundscapes, creates that unnerving sense of not being able to find your footing. Wolfe ends Pain Is Beauty with a double shot of near perfection. “They’ll Clap When You’re Gone” holds to a more acoustic style, while “The Waves Have Come” expands the acoustic beginnings with strings and synths.. There is no doubting the power of Chelsea Wolfe’s talent, and if you were unsure, these two songs should shut you up quickly.

Like Bat For Lashes, Beth Orton, or Patti Smith, Chelsea Wolfe exists in absolute and total honesty. This is her statement. This is her art. It challenges, it’s confrontational, and it isn’t always an easy listen. If you can get beyond that, then you’ll experience an album that will stay with resonate with you long after it ends.- by Iann Robinson

Pain Is Beauty comes out on September 3rd on Sargent House
Pre – Order on CD or Vinyl
Pre- Order at Itunes and get immediate download of “The Warden”

Chelsea Wolfe announces the release of her new album Pain Is Beauty  on September 3, 2013 worldwide on Sargent House. Chelsea and her band will also embark on a full US  headlining tour to coincide with the new album. See full track listing and all dates below this new album trailer video.

Pain Is Beauty – Tracklisting
1. Feral Love
2. We Hit a Wall
3. House of Metal
4. The Warden
5. Destruction Makes the World Burn Brighter
6. Sick
7. Kings
8. Reins
9. Ancestors, the Ancients
10. They’ll Clap When You’re Gone
11. The Waves Have Come
12. Lone

CHELSEA WOLFE PAIN IS BEAUTY TOUR 2013 
8/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Fest, LA History Park
9/01 – Tucson, AZ @ HOCO Festival
9/03 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
9/04 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
9/06 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
9/07 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
9/08 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
9/09 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
9/10 – Chapel Hill @ Local 506
9/11 – Washington DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
9/13 – NYC, New York @ Bowery Ballroom
9/14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
9/15 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
9/17 – Toronto, ONT @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
9/19 – Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room at Crofoot Ballroom
9/20 – Lexington, KY @ Boomslang Festival
9/21 – Chicago, IL – The Bottom Lounge
9/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
9/24 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
9/25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
9/26 – Boise, ID @ The Shredder
9/27 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
9/28 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
9/30 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall

11/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Royce Hall