Hiss Spun — Chelsea Wolfe (LP)

While past albums operated on the intimacy of stripped-down folk music (The Grime and the Glow, Unknown Rooms), or the throbbing pulse of supplemental electronics (Pain Is Beauty, Abyss), Chelsea Wolfe's sixth official album Hiss Spun wrings it's exquisiteness out of a palette of groaning bass, pounding drums, and crunching distortion. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge), the album was conceived as an emotional purge, a means of coming to terms with the tumult of the outside world by exploring the complexities of one's inner unrest. "I'm at odds with myself," she explains. "I got tired of trying to disappear. The record became very personal in that way. I wanted to open up more, but also create my own reality." Hiss Spun features contributions by Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, SUMAC) and Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, Failure).