By Isiamon of Immolith
Alright, I’ll be honest. This was intended to be a review. But instead what follows most likely qualifies as a rant more then a review. So if you just want to hear the review part, you should skip ahead to the last paragraph…
Normally when I mention bands online, or share their youtube videos on my facebook page, they get a lot of support. Clearly most of the people I’m networked with online all share a similar taste in music for underground metal, whether it’s death metal, black metal, or even old school traditional metal. But there’s one band that seems to divide people. Whether it’s when I post that my band is playing a show with them, or if I post a video, or mention I’m reviewing their new album. I can almost guarantee someone will remind me they “aren’t true,” or tell me they won’t listen to them because they “were a ‘core’ band.” That band is Abigail Williams. I’m often left trying to explain to people that regardless of the ‘core’ label that seems to follow them, Abigail Williams last album, “In the Absence of Light” is a solid black metal record by all accounts. And I let them know that Abigail Williams and that last album is something I really support. That is usually met with resistance as well. Black Metal fans will argue against Abigail Williams, and say they can’t support the band that wasn’t always black metal from its inception. They argue that Abigail Williams is just changing styles to fit trends and so on.
Listen, I’m the first guy to refuse to support bands that I think are changing styles to appease the record companies or bands that leave their artistic integrity at the door to appeal to a broader audience. Case in point- I never liked Pantera. To me Pantera is the classic metal example of a band that saw Metallica getting huge at the same time glam metal was dying. So Pantera gave up their lipstick and hairspray and jumped on the thrash metal band wagon in the late 80’s. I know it’s not a popular sentiment, but in my opinion Pantera will always be thrash metal posers. To argue otherwise strikes of revisionist history. I stopped listening to Metallica after “And Justice for All” because they changed their sound to keep up with the changing trends in more popular mainstream music. So when people tell me Abigail Williams isn’t true, or that they sold out, I just shake my head. If anything what Abigail Williams has done over the last few years and albums is the exact opposite of what Pantera or Metallica did when I was a kid. In my opinion Abigail Williams has gone from the more popular trend that is supported by more mainstream young metal fans, and changed to be a band that holds their own artistic integrity in its highest regard. Trends and mass appeal be damned, Abigail Williams is doing what they want to do.
Let’s face it, bands don’t start out more popular in current mainstream metal to become an underground black metal band to “cash in.” After having talked to Sorceron a number of times when we’ve played with them, and seeing, reading and hearing countless interviews with the guy, I think it’s safe to say he is composing music that he wants to play regardless of what anyone thinks. They don’t get caught up in all the talk by their detractors; they just keep touring relentlessly, and writing the music they want to write. I think their last album, and this newest one proves that point.
I spent about an hour talking with Ken Sorceron last year when they were on tour with Rotting Christ and Melechesh. He mentioned during the course of our conversation a number of times his goal of never writing the same album twice. He also mentioned some material they had been working on that was so ambient and underground black metal that he and guitarist Ian Jekelis had contemplated whether or not it would be too different to release under the same band name. I’m almost sure at the end of that part of our conversation he may have said something along the lines of “ah fuck it, we’ll see…’ After hearing “Becoming” I think back and wonder if that material he was talking about then is what I’m hearing now. I guess I’ll never know for sure. What I can say with certainty is that Abigail Williams have succeeded in not doing the same album twice. While I hear some things in “Becoming” that have been carried over from “In the Absence of Light,” this new album is different enough and goes so much deeper into itself that I’m sure it will keep people guessing whether it is indeed the same band. Becoming is an album I think that will require a listener’s undivided attention. If you are looking for Scandinavian inspired ‘necro’ black metal you will find it. If you are looking for Wolves in the Throne Room inspired post-black metal you will find it. If you are looking for sorrowful powerful melody you will find it. If you are looking for sweeping dynamic changes and epic songs that never lose a listener’s interest, you will find it. This an album that I recommend to not just black metal fans, but all fans of metal. Put your prejudices about genre aside, buy Becoming, put your headphones on and listen with an open mind. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Reader Comments
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