Sorrow - Under The Yew Possessed

I've been in the mood for non-metal lately. After listening to Soreption last week, the awful melodic death/thrash metal band The Sorrow started playing. I got a song of their's from one of those samplers that come with magazines and certain labels send you when you order their stuff. I had last.fm open and I was thinking to myself "who the fuck actually listens to this?" When I clicked the artist name to see all the listeners and comments it gave me a list of all the bands with the name Sorrow, and I came across this little folk rock/pop gem.

Sorrow is technically a duet composed of Rose McDowall, a Scottish pop singer, and some guy named Robert Lee. Apparently McDowall always had some minor obsession with gothic fantasy as it shows clearly in her photos and especially in Sorrow's music. Under The Yew Possessed features folksy guitars, melancholic lyrics, and a psychedelic-gothic vibe. Opener "Die" paints a pretty good picture of what the album is about. You can hear the melancholy in the music, but it still has some of Rose McDowall's previous bubblegum pop sound to it. The contrast is great, especially as her ethereal voice hits another octave on the last repeat of "die," making what should be an uplifting pop tune seem rather negative at heart.

Naturally the music is centered around McDowall's vocal delivery. Under The Yew Possessed is swooning bleakness but it's delivered in an almost whimsical, dreamlike state. It really makes you feel like you're in some overly dramatic nineteenth century horror/romance novel set in the forests of eastern Europe. As lame as it sounds at least it has atmosphere going for it, and it's a pretty strong atmosphere to boot. Songs like "Songbird" and the very gothic "Darkness" are absolutely enchanting, with stunning vocal melodies and that aforementioned contrasting sound between the melancholic lyrics and uplifting instrumentation. Interlude "Dew Of The Sea" and "Emptyness" both feature spoken word vocals, which actually work in the context of the album.

The neo-folk sound on Under The Yew Possessed is pretty apparent too with all the strumming, light acoustic guitar. The drumming is minimalistic and the bass often compliments or harmonizes with the vocal melodies, which is exactly what is supposed to happen in good pop music. My only real complaint is that the album ends on a downer, with "Loki and Evil," followed by three tracks of silence and an untitled ambient outro, but it still fits the atmosphere of the album. "Forgive Me" is also a bit less lyrically inspired, but I guess the album is still pop and it needs some sort of blatancy.

8.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1. Die
2. Forgive Me
3. Songbird
4. Dew of the Sea
5. Emptyness
6. Ice and I
7. Ruby Tears
8. Darkness
9. Loki and Evil
10. Silence
11. Silence
12. Silence
13. Untitled

Chelsea Wolfe - Apokalypsis

I'm generally not too fond of female vocalists. They're either a little too twangy, a little too whiny, or just all-around grating on my ears. There are a few exceptions to the rule, and I'm not talking about lame dude-growl sounding vocals like those done by the abomination in Arch Enemy, or obnoxious symphonic trash like Nightwish.

Chelsea Wolfe is one of the exceptions to the female vocalist rule. Soulful and dark, twisted yet refined, each of her songs combines elements of doom, folk, alternative, indie, and ambient rock. As the primary songwriter and singer, Chelsea Wolfe really contributes 110% on Apokalypsis. Wolfe begins the album with possessed growling on "Primal/Carnal" which shortly after transforms into "Mer," perhaps the most hook-laden track on the album. Each track follows a generally doom-esque chord progression. Distortion blurs Wolfe's voice, guitars, and the ambient noise into a sonic venture into the deep and forgotten recesses of the nature.

As a singer/songwriter, Wolfe's vocals are by far the biggest highlight on Apokalypsis. Her droning guitarwork sets the atmosphere and is a working backdrop for her winding vocal delivery. What impresses me the most is that her vocals never grate, nor do they reach melodic highs. Although they're somewhat gothic in nature, the vocals and atmosphere really work hand-in-hand to create a strong theme for the album. I often find myself humming along to the more catchy tracks on the album, like "Tracks (Tall Bodies)," "Mer," "Friedrichshain," and "Demons." However there are a few more ambient tracks on the album which in my opinion are not as enjoyable. "To The Forest, Towards The Sea" is a relatively pointless ambient outro, and "Movie Screen" is pretty dull as well. Tracks like "Moses" and "Pale on Pale" grew on me after listening a few times. Slower songs like these tend to need the room to grow a bit.

I feel like I'm cutting Chelsea Wolfe some slack solely because it's a female-fronted act that I enjoy, but when I really listen to the music there's a lot of emotion despite the semi-gothic delivery and atmosphere. Usually stuff like that falls flat on it's face, but here it's authentic, austere, and catchy. Best of all is that Apokalypsis has got a degree of heaviness to the music, which naturally as a big fan of metal and psychedelic rock appeals to me.

7.5 out of 10

Although simple, this album has a lot of re-spin value.

Tracklisting:

1. Primal / Carnal
2. Mer
3. Tracks (Tall Bodies)
4. Demons
5. Movie Screen
6. The Wasteland
7. Moses
8. Friedrichshain
9. Pale On Pale
10. To The Forest, Towards The Sea