Chelsea Wolfe positions herself in the crossover folds of a metal venn diagram, embracing everything from doom folk on Apokalypsis to gloomy distortion on Abyss. With “Vex,” the latest release from her upcoming album Hiss Spun, Wolfe strides closer to black metal than ever before—a sound she's long flirted with but never submerged herself in entirely. Wolfe has said the song is inspired by “a mysterious hum [that] resounds in the deep sea for about an hour” at dawn and dusk. No one knows where the hum comes from, but she speculates it’s an “instinctual guide to the creatures who live in those dark depths.” Wolfe structures "Vex" as a human version of that hum. Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen tries to mimic that distant call with crunchy guitar trills, while Wolfe's long falsetto notes hover in the air. When co-vocalist Aaron Turner enters the song with a hollow, guttural bellowing, the track descends listeners in cacophony. She sounds at home at here, blending the worlds of metal and dark noise with ease.