Smolken and Dead Raven Choir return after a period of time spent on his Wolfmangler project, with this new (and apparently final) foray into rustic, blackened folk music. The first half of Selenoclast Wolves consists of six new songs of skeletal, minimal folk with ghostly black metal undercurrents, eerie piano notes drifting over the ominous bowing of the cello and Smolken's sinister whispering, as dark abstract guitar notes plucked and scraped from the instrument, hanging and decaying into the air. Beautiful and autumnal in their starkness, these songs fall like dead leaves and trace wispy lines from Leonard Cohen and Current 93 to Appalachian folk and the frost of Burzumic black metal.

The second half of this CD contains the entire Lesbian Corpse Wolves album, which was released on CD-R a few years ago in an excruciatingly limited edition of 30 copies. Here it is again, and these songs are some of our favorite ever from Smolken and DRC. The Lesbian Corpse Wolves songs feature the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke delivered over dark, cobwebbed folk strum and Smolken's detuned, Jandek-meets-black metal acoustic guitar plunking backed by dramatic piano and cello. Smolken is joined by Matt Rosin (vocals and piano) and Emily Salvatierra (vocals) on this recording, and all three vocalists handle different parts of different songs and occasionally engage in breathtaking harmonies. Shadowy and gorgeous avant-nocturnal-folk. Highly recommended.