Valentine Wolfe: The Haunting of Mary Shelley Album Review

I usually stick to reviewing literature on this blog rather than music, but I’ll make an exception for especially literary music. This categorization can be used to describe much of the music by gothic metal band Valentine Wolfe, whom I had the honor of interviewing about their relationship with literature last year. Their newest album takes that love of books even further. The Haunting of Mary Shelley, which released earlier this month, is a concept album revolving around the author Mary Shelley and her celebrated novel, Frankenstein. The band describes their genre as “Victorian chamber metal,” which is exactly the sort of sound that pairs perfectly with anguished monsters, regretful scientists, and desperate chases across arctic landscapes.

The Haunting of Mary Shelley consists of ten new songs that combine biographical details of Mary Shelley’s life with literary references to Frankenstein. In the metal tradition, the songs tend toward the longer side, averaging about 4.5 minutes each. The album opens with its longest song “A Voice in the Dark.” This song’s opening lines are taken directly from first few letters from Captain Robert Walton to his sister Mrs. Saville that are used to frame the story of Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s text. The song speaks to feelings of loneliness and isolation, despair mixed with determination. Much of the lyrics are paraphrases or more direct quotes taken from Walton’s letters. The song ends by quoting the passage in which the reader gets their first glimpse of the being that will come to be known as Frankenstein’s monster. Much as Walton’s letters set up and prepare us for the story of Frankenstein, so “A Voice in the Dark” sets us up for the rest of the album.

With the second song, “On the Education of Daughters,” the album switches gears away from the men in the story to the women behind it. The title is taken from the first published work of Mary Shelley’s mother, the celebrated feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, and its lyrics speak to the stifling social expectations that both Shelley and her mother faced as women at the turn of the nineteenth century. The song’s melody is reminiscent of a lullaby. Though her mother died just days after Shelley was born, we can imagine these “subversive whisperings” nonetheless making their way to Shelley’s ears and influencing her worldview. The themes of Shelley’s relationship with her mother and their shared interest in feminism are explored in more depth in “It’s Not Your Story to Tell.”

In line with the album’s emphasis on women and gender disparity is the unexpected “Song for Justine.” An often-overlooked character in Frankenstein, Justine is a servant in the Frankenstein household. She indirectly becomes the creature’s second victim when he frames her for the murder of Victor’s younger brother William and she is executed for the crime. Her death is generally overshadowed by those of William, Elizabeth, and Henry Clerval, which is why I found it particularly powerful that she gets her own song on the album.

My favorite of the tracks is “I Will be With You on Your Wedding Night.” Essentially the monster’s revenge song, it takes its lyrics from the various confrontations between Victor Frankenstein and his creation. During the first, early on in the text, the monster explains his grievances to his maker and begs, “Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” Later, when Victor fails in this regard, the monster turns murderous and ominously threatens “I will be with you on your wedding night,” which serves as the haunting refrain of this song. By combining these different speeches, the song provides a coherent portrait of the monster’s motivations and traces the evolution of his rage.

Lastly, the album closes with “What Lies Beyond,” a beautiful homage to Mary Shelley’s great love for her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, which endured long after his death. I could go on and on about the album’s clever textual references and poignant biographical commentary, but instead I’ll let you just listen to it for yourselves. The entire album is currently up on Youtube (see below). You can also find it on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp. Once you’ve listened to the album, let me know what you think!