Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

Sargent House (US)  /  2017 / Experimental metal

Chelsea Wolfe famously skirts the edges of a lot of loosely-related genres, including gothic rock, industrial music, electronica, folk rock, and doom metal, but 2017's Hiss Spun commits decisively toward metal. I've been on the fence about Wolfe's previous albums, which have a ton of atmosphere and tension but only rarely push that into some type of release. It's an approach I associate with gothic styles of music, which are content to inhabit mood without going on a journey. Hiss Spun throws that ethos out the window.

Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

Armageddon Shop (US) / Stickman (GER) /  2017 / Stoner metal

Elder received quite a lot of well-deserved press for 2015's Lore, my first introduction to the band. I love Lore, so I was interested to see in what direction the Massachusetts band went with their fourth full-length. Reflections of a Floating World starts off in a similar place as Lore with heavy-rock riffs and a massive, deep sound. I hear echoes of Brent Hinds in the first solo on "Sanctuary," which is where that track becomes more spaced-out than anything I've heard from Elder before. It's these cosmic, ethereal sounds that feel new to Reflections, which lends further dimensions to the sound established in Lore.