Hi everyone, Coldthony Drinktano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Chelsea Wolfe record, The Dark.

Here we have the ninth full-length album of singer-songwriter Miss Chelsea Wolfe. Yes, nine whole albums at this point, and when it comes to artists who are active on the alternative and the goth scene, few have amassed a run of records as versatile as Chelsea's, as she's dropped albums that have more of an art-rock flair, ethereal wave, industrial folk music, doom metal.

She also has a collaboration with freakin' Converge under her belt. And her last full-length album, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, saw her even incorporating elements of trip-hop into the mix, with heavy lumbering beats and impenetrably thick walls of distortion and bass. All around a powerful and absolutely crushing record, which I thankfully had the opportunity to pick Chelsea's brain about that album a little more than a year ago.

Now, this variety across Chelsea's catalogue is very clearly not just by chance.

She's a woman who obviously goes into each new album with a game plan or an instrumental palette in mind, a series of influences to pull from, so that she ends up with the most cohesive vision she can possibly have for a particular album cycle. And in that interview that I did with Chelsea that I just referenced, she seemed to already be plotting her next move musically, teasing the idea of producing tracks that had more of a traditional singer-songwriter tone to them and could maybe even possibly bring her some shade of mainstream appeal.

So that attempt is arriving in the shape of this album, The Dark, and I gotta say I feel like it's mostly delivering on that promise. Not that I feel like Chelsea is writing Top 40 hits on this album per se, but I feel like there is a very clean, almost commercial, pristine veneer to a lot of the moody, slow, rock, and acoustic instrumentation across this record. I would also add that the instrumental palettes on this album are very representative of the desert surroundings that Chelsea finds herself in on the cover: the distortion, the drums, the atmosphere surrounding these tracks.

It's dry, it's tortured, it's tense. It's like being out in the middle of nowhere in Arizona without water for two days. There's almost a cinematic quality to a lot of the production on this record as well that, I don't know, at least to my ear, kind of rings of something that you would hear used as a theme song for, like, a Netflix original series. Something maybe running along the lines of a true crime show, or a reality series about biker wives. Which, in one breath, might sound kind of corny, but in another, I am kind of impressed at Chelsea's ability with each new album; when she does have a certain direction in mind, even if it's not one that I'm a super huge fan of, she just absolutely grabs it by the throat and recreates it with unparalleled accuracy.

Because honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she was making at least some of the music on this record with the hope or intention that it would be licensed or synced in some kind of fashion. And it sounds so fitting for that context; damn if she doesn't deserve it.

With that being said, though, playing within that space and coloring within those lines, I think, has overall led to an album, for Chelsea, that is a little predictable, not quite as adventurous or daring.

Like, for example, going in this direction for an artist like Chelsea, I think, could have provided her an opportunity to write ballads and songs that maybe run along kind of a PJ Harvey parallel.

But instead, at the very end of this album, we are getting a piano ballad that sounds more akin to a Sarah McLachlan song. So I don't know, interpret that how you will. There are also moments like "Halo," as well as the title track, that I dare say are a little conventional too. The former kind of feels like a Nirvana-influenced acoustic rock cut.

The latter leans even more into the acoustic guitars and spends a lot of time building up tension in order to give listeners this huge roaring crescendo payoff. And while the dynamics certainly hit, they're more memorable than the songwriting itself.

Which is a little disappointing because if the point of this project was to simplify things and strip things back a little bit and get more conventional as a means of, like, really flexing Chelsea's pen game, there's definitely tracks here where it kind of falls short on that front.

With that being said, though, when the songwriting on this thing does hit, it's a smash. "Swallower," for example, is maybe one of Chelsea's most stunning numbers. That wailing two-note guitar lead across the track just cuts through the mix aggressively. Meanwhile, Chelsea's howling leads just embedded themselves into my head instantly.

The opening track, "Cold," is a really compelling piano number about a one-sided relationship. Which, thematically, seems to be a pretty consistent source of inspiration across a lot of this album's lyrics. And "Seathe," which is an equally good song, is one of the few spare moments on this record where Chelsea is kind of dabbling a little bit more in electronics: throbbing synths and beats and the like.

And I think it adds a good amount of variety to this track list that, honestly, is in desperate need of it. "Death Is Not The End" is another highlight for me, if not only for it being the most crushing finish of any song on this entire record.

One of the few moments on this record that does not feel like it's compromising at all sonically. Meanwhile, "Turn The Key," in so many ways, at its core, feels like a track that even could have been on Chelsea's last full-length album. But instead of kind of being awash in the synths and electronics and beats, it's being carried out by this slow, grungy, atmospheric rock instrumentation. And it still works.

But yeah, overall, while this new Chelsea Wolfe record does have some quality, clean production, and a handful of standout songs, simultaneously, I was a little underwhelmed by it, because I find it to be one of her least musically and instrumentally adventurous albums.

But from the outset, it's pretty clear that breaking new ground isn't really this album's intentions to begin with. And it's to instead try to write and make something with a bit more of a conventional appeal to see just how far the ripples go out once this record makes a splash.

And again, while I wouldn't say I love it or I'm head over heels for it, it is an album if someone were to ask me, "Oh, Chelsea Wolfe, who's that? What's a good song or album to try out first to kind of get into her music?" I would easily say this record or check out "Swallower," check out "Cold." So yeah, while Chelsea hasn't made a mind-blowing album here, I think she has made a pretty solid Gateway album.

Which is why I'm feeling about a strong six on it.

Anthony Fantano, Chelsea Wolfe, forever.