With just enough of a gothic, deadly touch to give the album a sense of urgency but not enough absurdly dark matter to derail from its focused and nuanced sense of woe, Pain Is Beauty hits all the right notes.
Sculpting the greatest sum of tracks Wolfe has ever created, Pain Is Beauty, shines in the void that she dwells in.
It's on this release that Wolfe actually sheds her veil to reveal just how special an artist she is.
A very strong collection of songs that flirt with singer-songwriter tropes but embrace the dark side.
Wolfe has crafted an impeccable release here, building upon her existing methods and evolving as a songwriter. Things feel more confident – there’s more energy and oomph
She seems to exist alone in her own world on Pain Is Beauty, crystallizing and strengthening her musical language without compromising her original, principled vision.
Her newest release, Pain is Beauty, takes listeners to the highest of highs, all thanks to Wolfe’s willingness to get low and descend even further into the gloom-hole.
Downright electrifying and beautifully eerie, Pain is Beauty is an album that unearths weighty emotional levels.
From many other artists, this vast scope and variety would sound unfocused, and to be fair, Pain Is Beauty isn't quite as cohesive as Wolfe's earlier albums. Regardless, it's exciting to hear her try so many new things and do them so well.
Pain Is Beauty is cold, hard, and will beat you up. But in a really loving, cruel-to-be-kind way.
... resulting in a richer, cleaner-sounding record that was more intricately layered than Wolfe’s prior work. In this sense, Pain Is Beauty stands out as yet another stylistic break in a brief career that has already been characterized by several of them.
This is clearly the album that removes any lingering doubt that Chelsea Wolfe is a very special artist; one who is capable of the visceral and the surprisingly soothing in the same stroke.
Despite the appetite for genre exploration, Beauty exhibits some constants: it stays passionate and invested while still seeming distant, probing the ghosts of emotions instead of getting completely immersed in the moment.
There isn't much cohesion, but more an assemblage of darkened thoughts unclear to the listener. Wolfe is scarily assured.
While it's possible Pain Is Beauty would have benefited from some more time spent songwriting and fleshing out the overall direction of the album's sound, there's still more than enough impressive songs to make this a worthy addition to the Chelsea Wolfe catalog.
If Christopher Nolan ever does one of his gritty makeovers on Twilight, the soundtrack’s as good as sewn up.
Chelsea Wolfe has a dark ethereal sound that I love. I wish I heard her music before. The album has a darkness that is comparable to some of the darkest corners of darkwave sort of a blend between DM and Cocteu Twins. Love ittttt
for as dark as people say it is, it's really fucking boring. I'm not saying to have to recreate Caligula but damn, it just feels so empty
Similar to Abyss, I did enjoy a lot of moments and aspects of this album, like Chelsea's vocals and the atmospheres that are built, but a lot of tracks were just a little too minimal for me to truly love them. There are still definite highlights, though, like Feral Love, House Of Metal, and Kings. There's also The Waves Have Come, which is an especially gorgeous moment that has a pretty great climax that it builds up to, despite it being the longest track here I found it one of the most ... read more
Entrancing throughout its 55 minute runtime. Will definitely listen to this one again and again.
1 | Feral Love 3:22 | 93 |
2 | We Hit a Wall 3:35 | 89 |
3 | House of Metal 5:00 | 90 |
4 | The Warden 3:52 | 89 |
5 | Destruction Makes the World Burn Brighter 2:38 | 81 |
6 | Sick 5:35 | 89 |
7 | Kings 3:58 | 83 |
8 | Reins 5:15 | 87 |
9 | Ancestors, the Ancients 4:35 | 88 |
10 | They'll Clap When You're Gone 5:52 | 86 |
11 | The Waves Have Come 8:29 | 92 |
12 | Lone 2:36 | 80 |
#18 | / | The Needle Drop |
#37 | / | Under the Radar |
#43 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#44 | / | eMusic |
#57 | / | Crack Magazine |
#73 | / | PopMatters |
#97 | / | musicOMH |