Chelsea Wolfe completes her sonic triptych of 2024 with an EP that strips her music down to its beautiful core.
CHELSEA WOLFE - Unbound EP (Bioluminescence Edition coloured vinyl / one side etched) (2024)
"Unbound" follows her album "She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She" and the digital-only EP "Undone", which featured exciting remixes of selected songs from that record by Justin Broadrick, Boy Harsher and others.
There's not much to elaborate on the concept of this EP: Instead of giving her material into the hands of others, Chelsea Wolfe is reinterpreting her own songs in a more intimate way, only with her voice and guitar or piano. And while doing so she's not just playing the songs unplugged without the band. She's also not afraid to drastically change the melodies, if it serves the new arrangement. And that's quite daring, considering for example the memorability of the vocal melodies in the album opener "Whispers In The Echo Chambers", which also starts off this EP. But there's actually no need for adjustment - the new take instantly works without diminishing the original from the album.
And that goes for all four new versions. They don't feel better or worse, they don't even make you want to think about comparing them with their former variants. No, it's just wonderful that they are here, right now, with Chelsea's voice gently carrying her magic into our ear.
The record ends with one non-album track, which could easily be a new original song. "Cellar Door" however actually is a cover by one of those very popular modern Metal bands I don't even want to check out, because I've already got such a comfortably precise imagination of how uninteresting for me they might sound. But ok, for the sake of this review I gave Spiritbox a listen - only to find out that my guess was pretty close. More aggressive vocals than expected, but other than that just the technically impressive, but emotionally bland stuff, which gives me close to nothing to connect with. Probably won't return to it. Can't say that about this cover version. Nah, sorry, to me this song definitely belongs to Chelsea Wolfe now.
Since all five tracks easily fit on side A, there's an etching on the other side of the coloured vinyl. It's a pleasant item with a front cover I definitely prefer over the album's artwork.
There's not much to elaborate on the concept of this EP: Instead of giving her material into the hands of others, Chelsea Wolfe is reinterpreting her own songs in a more intimate way, only with her voice and guitar or piano. And while doing so she's not just playing the songs unplugged without the band. She's also not afraid to drastically change the melodies, if it serves the new arrangement. And that's quite daring, considering for example the memorability of the vocal melodies in the album opener "Whispers In The Echo Chambers", which also starts off this EP. But there's actually no need for adjustment - the new take instantly works without diminishing the original from the album.
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| Chelsea Wolfe live in Hamburg |
The record ends with one non-album track, which could easily be a new original song. "Cellar Door" however actually is a cover by one of those very popular modern Metal bands I don't even want to check out, because I've already got such a comfortably precise imagination of how uninteresting for me they might sound. But ok, for the sake of this review I gave Spiritbox a listen - only to find out that my guess was pretty close. More aggressive vocals than expected, but other than that just the technically impressive, but emotionally bland stuff, which gives me close to nothing to connect with. Probably won't return to it. Can't say that about this cover version. Nah, sorry, to me this song definitely belongs to Chelsea Wolfe now.
Since all five tracks easily fit on side A, there's an etching on the other side of the coloured vinyl. It's a pleasant item with a front cover I definitely prefer over the album's artwork.
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