Maybe the music in “Arriving Angels” is far from being canonical doom, but it doesn’t sound that weird for those who are into doom, a genre made not only of heaviness but also of dark atmospheres and introspection. So additional tags may apply. The really “weird” element here is the speciality of the front musician, Alison Chesley a.k.a. Helen Money. Alison Chesley is the Boston-based US cellist that is quite into modern, avantgarde, punk, post-rock and metal music scenes in spite of her definitely classical formation. Look at her on stage and you’ll see how well Alison’s professional look and apparatus express her polyedric roots!
As a matter of fact Alison’s long career encompasses important and, well, strikingly diverse professional collaborations and interactions ranging from the alt-rock band Verbow to Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü fame, to the Japanese post-rock band Mono, to metal bands like Anthrax and Russian Circles, noise rock icons Shellac, trip-hop masters Portishead, drone monsters Earth, and so forth.
Label Profound Lore Records released the new album by Helen Money, “Arriving Angels ”. This album comes after such multifaceted career and records a change in the type of performance, i.e., from basically solo performance to a real band setting. In Arriving Angels act Helen Money comes as a duo, as on some tracks Alison Chesley is joined by none less than Jason Roeder, drummer/ percussionist in Neurosis. Arriving Angels includes 8 tracks for over 40 minutes of dark, heavy instrumental music where Helen’s distorted and downtuned cello is building up stories and knitting atmospheres with her fingers over those thick chords. The acoustic voice of cello might be trembling alone in silence via soft touches, such as in Upsetter and in the charming intimacy of the stripped-down cover of Pat Metheny’s Midwestern Nights Dream.
Tempos, sounds, effects and atmospheres may change radically, like in the eponymous track, where a dominant drony, dark ambient mood made of subtle oscillating vibrations is periodically interrupted, or disrupted, by metallic bursts. In Shrapnel the previous “noisy” interruptions are somehow reprised by Jason’s slow, plodding drumming backing up the pulsation of the cello in its different voices. After the hypnotic, suffocating martial rhythm of Shrapnel comes the final track Runout, growing slowly but then developing into a beautiful emotional ballad lead by drums and piano possessing independent and contrasting patterns. A hint to a desert rock riff by distorted, electrified cello will be the last sound you’ll hear before silence will swallow everything up. Album Arriving Angels strays boundaries between genres: doom, folk, post-metal, drone, …
The press notes refer Arriving Angels being recorded and engineered “with brutal precision” by the “iconoclastic” Steve Albini. Well, yes, the “brutality” probably resides in the fact that the many different elements and influences in this album are stripped down to a level of rawness and minimalism that may sound “brutal”. Helen Money’s style is of course something unique. However what heard in this album made me somehow remember the sense of surprise and the pleasure in hearing such stripped-down “contamination” with classical instruments, including cello, coupled with a raw bass-driven and highly atmospheric black metal in Tulus’ 2007 album Biography Obscene, one of my fave metal albums ever. Also it was the occasion of refreshing memory about another case of “unusual” instruments successfully employed in extreme music, i.e. double bass in the awesome doom band Hooded Priest. Yes, metallers are open minded!
In case you are on the right latitude and longitude, don’t miss the chance of seeing Helen Money live next July 17th at the Five Star Bar in Downtown in Los Angeles for a gig with Lycus and Lake ov Blood, among others. Alternatively, get some glimpses of Alison’s performances in the video below and the others collected HERE.
Words: Marilena Moroni
Official Website
Profound Lore Records