audiopinions

Abigail Williams – Becoming
[Candlelight Records]
9.5/10

If there is one thing that anyone can say about Abigail Williams, it would be that the band has never released the same album twice. Every release is vastly different than the last. The original Demo/EP Gallow Hill with its very metalcore but blackened base. 2006′s Legend bringing the sound to a more settled black metal sound but still touching on popular metal influence. The bands first full length In The Shadow of A Thousand Suns being very heavily influenced by Norwegian Symphonic metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir and Emperor and bringing then band more into the music worlds attention. Beginning with their last album the band seemed to regress into a more raw, and less polished sound. With long time keyboardist Ashley Ellyon out of the picture to tour with Cradle of Filth, the band shrank to a three piece and released In The Absence of Light.

Right off the new album “Becoming” released on Candlelight Records, somehow does something very few bands in this genre are able to pull off. Founding member and Producer Ken Sorceron, is able to give the “kvlt” or Lo Fi Black metal essence that its fans thrive on while being clean, well produced, and crisp. You would almost mistake this for an nice warm Analog recording but I was informed by Ken that it is indeed Digital.

This album falls into the atmospheric sound popularized recently by bands like Wolves In The Throne Room and are an obvious influence, however don’t take that to mean that this is a copycat album. It has a unique feel all its own. Unlike bands like Wolves In The Throne Room, who are more focused on nature and elements, Becoming has more of a frighting atmosphere, even at times a quasi 70′s Supernatural feel ( A la Dario Argento). This leaves you with a very lonely, depressed and inward mood… something that is indeed a goal I would presume.

In particular, songs like “Radiance”, with eerie and almost inhuman growls and the brilliantly disturbing string arrangement’s on the closing track “beyond the veil”, really make this album stand out among the sea of new albums. Abigail Williams may have traded off the polished production for a more stripped and raw sound, but this album is what I feel to be the band coming into their own and setting standards.