"LEGEND" ep reviews

http://www.metalreviews.com/reviews/detail.php3?id=3644

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS - Legend
Candlelight

Melodic blackened Norse' and hardcore

5 songs (21'44")
Release year: 2007
abigail williams, Candlelight


If you were wondering why name your metal band Abigail Williams, I can offer a pure guess. From the early days of the American history, in Salem witch trials, Abigail Williams was one of the teenagers responsible for all of the hysteria and paranoia. And the last I checked witches, dark magic and metal meshed pretty well.

Then, if you were to ask me what style this American band from Phoenix, Arizona, plays I’d be hard pressed to give you a simple answer. It seems that this brainchild of Ken Sorceron is borrowing from many aspects of the extreme metal. By taking a little bit from everywhere Abigail Williams is trying to create a sound all their own. I venture to say that this feat would be near impossible given the ingredients, but the fact the band never overstays on any given part of the spectrum and has fleeting moments of many a style, the mere fact changes happen fast in Abigail Williams kaleidoscope – their Legend EP sounds fresh and energetic as a result.

Melody and groove are very important to Abigail Williams. Their riffs can often be compared to something out of the Gothenborg School with The Conqueror Wyrm opening coming straight from Dark Tranquillity with its keyboard melody. The thrashier, more At The Gates, side of Gothenborg also makes appearance on the opener From a Buried Heart. Abigail Williams keyboards provide a colder icier feeling, similar to symphonic black metal styling of much maligned Old Man’s Child and Dimmu Borgir, but the synths on Legend are not quite overpowering and their sliding along the blastbeat of the earlier demo track Procession of the Aeons even bring the true black metal raw feeling. The latter does not last long, but if you think Abigail Williams is cloning Dimmu Borgir given the symphonic arrangements in The Conqueror Wyrm, they could counter with an American hardcore breakdown slam on From a Buried Heart and clean crooning complementing lower gruff vocals. The dual vocals and frosty melodies are also carried by a Gothenburg groove on Like Carrion Birds. How does it all fit together? I didn’t think it would either, but such combo sound is less rehashed than the latest Old Man’s Child, for example.

If you think that Cradle of Filth has no room in metal, much less black metal, you would not like Watchtower, the track at least 100,000 people sampled through MySpace.com. If you can’t stand Dani Filth’s shrieking, you might find Ken’s vocals on this track almost as obnoxious as the original. Add some spoken moments, clicking drum track making the kick drum to sound higher than the snare, symphonic keyboards set to a double bass, and the Cradle impression is almost complete.

For a young Abigail Williams musicianship is very solid. In one of the line-up reincarnations the band had the services of Bjorn Dannov, from the fellow Arizonians Vehemence, now sadly disbanded.

I may not be ready to anoint Abigail Williams just yet, because it seems to me Legend is just testing the waters. The band is really at the crossroads. Should they be choosing Watchtower direction, perhaps many will enjoy a younger re-energized Cradle of Filth, but I personally fail to see the point. On the other side, blending blackened melodeath, Norse’ and hardcore is an ambitious undertaking worth watching. Let’s just see where the chips fall next.
 
MetalReview.com:

http://www.metalreview.com/3404/Abigail-Williams-Legend.aspx

4/2/4.5

By Jeremy Garner

There’s been a lot of buzz circling this band, and even I got a bit caught up in the excitement. Considering Abigail Williams was originally formed from the ashes of the famed US death metal darlings Vehemence, a personal contemporary favorite of mine, expectations are understandably high. Add to that an opening slot for the US return of black metal Gods Emperor at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, along with an invitation to tour with black metal veterans Dark Funeral and Enslaved and there’s got to be some element of greatness here, right? Right? Not exactly. Despite their overwhelming publicity and success, I found Legend to be an overwhelming disappointment.

“From the Buried Heart” kicks off the album in a flurry of trite and predictable Americanized melodeath that amounts to sounding like little more than The Black Dahlia Murder with a bit of keyboards, and some fairly unconvincing chorus featuring clean vocals. “Like Carrion Birds” starts off like a less inspired version of The Funeral Pyre without the adventurous elements. Predominately speaking, Abigail Williams sticks to playing it safe without ever deviating much from all the expected clichés (The Cradle of Filth meets watered down American NWSDM ala Darkest Hour is painfully obvious), and is in no way what I would call subtle. Inconsistency of quality is the order of the day. By the time “The Conqueror Wyrm” rolls around, they start to focus more on the symphonic black metal aspects of their sound, but the change isn’t really complete until the Emperor inspired “Watchtower” and Naglfar/Dark Funeral-esque musings of “Procession of the Aeons” demarcate the most interesting moments of Legend by far, albeit I’d be hard pressed to point to any moment of the album that hasn’t been done better by their far too obvious range of influences.

I found Ashley Jurgenmeyer’s keyboard work to be extremely obnoxious, not because she has a propensity to be overwhelming or anything to that effect, but because her parts are, frankly speaking, some of the blandest, most uninteresting generic work I’ve heard to date. Most of the keyboard parts seems like an over-extravagant afterthought that while mildly complementary, hardly adds anything of interest to the larger picture of Abigail Williams' sound. I’ve never been that impressed with Zach Gibson (ex-The Black Dahlia Murder), he may be able to get the job done well enough, but his playing has never been anything close to what I would call standout. However, to their credit, Bjorn Dannov’s (ex-Vehemence) leadwork is extremely well executed, and by far the most inspiring and engaging aspect of Legend, even if the rhythmwork on the album is, as is becoming the trademark of Abigail Williams, horrifyingly generic. Even if it’s not the most evocatively original style, vocalist Ken Sorceron does have a pretty forceful set of pipes on him, but fancy solos and a furious vocalist aren’t enough to make an album successful.

Inevitably I’m going to step on someone’s toes writing this review, and as sure as the sun comes up every morning, most people are going to chalk my opinions up to being little more than those of an opinionated elitist who has his head shoved too far up his own kvlt ass to appreciate good music for what it is. Unsurprisingly, at least from my perspective, a good many people are going to absolutely adore this album. Some will laud this band's greatness and gripe about how no one is giving them the proper respect they deserve, but I cannot see eye to eye on this one. I can completely understand why-- this is an extremely accessible and very catchy album. Dare I go as far as saying the epitome of commercialized extreme metal? If this is your type of thing then great, but I personally can't find anything of any particular merit to prove that Legend is anymore than pure hype.
 
When Metallian says you suck, I'm not quite sure how you can go on pretending otherwise.

It's also amusing how whenever someone here takes the time to post a negative review, you kiddies just offhandedly dismiss it as being written by someone young and angry, despite the fact that these reviews are the ones that actually analyze the music. The ones you praise (the vast majority of the positive ones) were quite clearly written by people with no idea what they're talking about, and just like the band because they can be somewhat catchy, are oh-so-progressive (a female and keyboards in a "black metal" band?! GASP!), and because Dark Funeral says to.

Get some taste you insects.

Oh, and Sorceron - I "bother" you on your myspace page? The only reason I listened to your garbage band is because I received a friends request from you because you spam for "fans." Then I inboxed you, and you spent a few hours telling me how awesome you are compared to me, because I'm an 18 year old kid who spends his time on myspace arguing with people, compared to you, who "gets his dick sucked every night" and such. You also called me pathetic for wasting my time arguing with someone "famous" on the internet...then when I pointed out that you have nothing better to do than argue with a no-name kid from across the country, you refused to respond with anything more than "suck a dick", over and over again XD

How can I become as hardcore as you, Kenny?
 
"Get some taste you insects."

It's called an opinion. Everyone's is different. We like AW, you don't, so just STFU about it. Not to mention that you try to call Ken a loser, then join his band's forum for the sole purpose of complaining.
 
GoatDoomOcculta said:
When Metallian says you suck, I'm not quite sure how you can go on pretending otherwise.

It's also amusing how whenever someone here takes the time to post a negative review, you kiddies just offhandedly dismiss it as being written by someone young and angry, despite the fact that these reviews are the ones that actually analyze the music. The ones you praise (the vast majority of the positive ones) were quite clearly written by people with no idea what they're talking about, and just like the band because they can be somewhat catchy, are oh-so-progressive (a female and keyboards in a "black metal" band?! GASP!), and because Dark Funeral says to.

Get some taste you insects.

Oh, and Sorceron - I "bother" you on your myspace page? The only reason I listened to your garbage band is because I received a friends request from you because you spam for "fans." Then I inboxed you, and you spent a few hours telling me how awesome you are compared to me, because I'm an 18 year old kid who spends his time on myspace arguing with people, compared to you, who "gets his dick sucked every night" and such. You also called me pathetic for wasting my time arguing with someone "famous" on the internet...then when I pointed out that you have nothing better to do than argue with a no-name kid from across the country, you refused to respond with anything more than "suck a dick", over and over again XD

How can I become as hardcore as you, Kenny?
Click to expand...

You are obviously obessed/jealous with them in some way if you bothered even sending them a negative message or posts here and taking internet shit seriously. Don't have a myspace account if you don't want tons of random requests from shitty bands (which AW are far from), and tons of other bullshit. That is what myspace is for, self promotion and bullshit, occassionally finding some cool bands or old friends. WHenever a band that blows tries to add me, I just deny it and move on. Or if I feel like it, I might give them some constructive critism if they are just an amature band starting out that needs any advice they can get. Keep in mind you messaged the band first. Most people who spend years getting their band to the level AW are at would be defensive about it when provoked.

BTW if abigail williams are so shit, where is your infinitely better band? And where is your university degree in music comp like the keyboardist? were you in vehemence?

There is a way to write a non-complimentary review without bashing or insulting, which most of the negative reviews seem to be (including yours). And I know the type who write them, fat angry losers with no musical talent themselves that think they are black metal scholars because they've been listening to darkthrone ever since those days of getting picked on in highschool.
 
GoatDoomOcculta said:
When Metallian says you suck, I'm not quite sure how you can go on pretending otherwise.

It's also amusing how whenever someone here takes the time to post a negative review, you kiddies just offhandedly dismiss it as being written by someone young and angry, despite the fact that these reviews are the ones that actually analyze the music. The ones you praise (the vast majority of the positive ones) were quite clearly written by people with no idea what they're talking about, and just like the band because they can be somewhat catchy, are oh-so-progressive (a female and keyboards in a "black metal" band?! GASP!), and because Dark Funeral says to.

Get some taste you insects.

Oh, and Sorceron - I "bother" you on your myspace page? The only reason I listened to your garbage band is because I received a friends request from you because you spam for "fans." Then I inboxed you, and you spent a few hours telling me how awesome you are compared to me, because I'm an 18 year old kid who spends his time on myspace arguing with people, compared to you, who "gets his dick sucked every night" and such. You also called me pathetic for wasting my time arguing with someone "famous" on the internet...then when I pointed out that you have nothing better to do than argue with a no-name kid from across the country, you refused to respond with anything more than "suck a dick", over and over again XD

How can I become as hardcore as you, Kenny?
Click to expand...


They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit so if you didnt get it then i rest my case.
 
Entropiastrife said:
You are obviously obessed/jealous with them in some way if you bothered even sending them a negative message or posts here and taking internet shit seriously. Don't have a myspace account if you don't want tons of random requests from shitty bands (which AW are far from), and tons of other bullshit. That is what myspace is for, self promotion and bullshit, occassionally finding some cool bands or old friends. WHenever a band that blows tries to add me, I just deny it and move on. Or if I feel like it, I might give them some constructive critism if they are just an amature band starting out that needs any advice they can get. Keep in mind you messaged the band first. Most people who spend years getting their band to the level AW are at would be defensive about it when provoked.

BTW if abigail williams are so shit, where is your infinitely better band? And where is your university degree in music comp like the keyboardist? were you in vehemence?

There is a way to write a non-complimentary review without bashing or insulting, which most of the negative reviews seem to be (including yours). And I know the type who write them, fat angry losers with no musical talent themselves that think they are black metal scholars because they've been listening to darkthrone ever since those days of getting picked on in highschool.
Click to expand...

I'm not reading the first wall of text because I don't care, so I hope you had fun typing it at least.

Sarah's not a bad keyboardist, but whomever writes/wrote the songs has no idea how to incorporate keyboards into music. And just because you have a degree in anything doesn't necessarily make you good at it. And this may come as a shock to you, but having a degree in music composition definitely does NOT mean you are a good keyboardist, least of all a good metal one. Nowhere will you see a degree or even a university class based on "metal keyboards." Twit.

Abigail Williams is not black metal. Your third paragraph isn't worth responding to due to its complete irrelevance.

Have fun ranting in response.
 
Sorceron, keep crying. Until you come up with a pseudonym that isn't almost as laughable as "Abominor", I refuse to take you seriously.
 
Wall of text? Yours was just as large. Besides, I don't see the point in claiming "AW aren't black metal." So what if you think they're not? What does genre classifications have to do with whether or not someone likes the music?
 
GoatDoomOcculta said:
It's also amusing how whenever someone here takes the time to post a negative review, you kiddies just offhandedly dismiss it as being written by someone young and angry, despite the fact that these reviews are the ones that actually analyze the music. The ones you praise (the vast majority of the positive ones) were quite clearly written by people with no idea what they're talking about, and just like the band because they can be somewhat catchy, are oh-so-progressive (a female and keyboards in a "black metal" band?! GASP!), and because Dark Funeral says to.

Get some taste you insects.
Click to expand...

Your review, and – to a greater extent - your posts on here, come across as the result of deep-seated insecurity. Can I suggest that people are far more likely to take your opinion seriously if you present it (both in reviews and on message boards) without resorting to throw away insults. AW seem fairly good with constructive criticism, and I think writing such an opinionated review and posting personal tirades against the members is a disservice when, if you could refrain, people would be a lot less dismissive of your opinion…
 
this guy calling us out? hey fuck you buddy hah. honestly, i don't give a shit what anyone thinks. I've been in this game long enough to not let this shit bother me. but one thing i don't understand is if you don't give a shit about our band, why put so much energy into fighting it? its not like we're gonna stop what we are doing cuz of your sorry ass hah. go do something else with your time man. this is a place for us and our fans to interact. And i'll be the first to say, we are NOT a black metal band. Sure we have influences of it, but we have lots of influences.

by the way, who the fuck is sarah??
 
GoatDoomOcculta said:
I'm not reading the first wall of text because I don't care, so I hope you had fun typing it at least.

Sarah's not a bad keyboardist, but whomever writes/wrote the songs has no idea how to incorporate keyboards into music. And just because you have a degree in anything doesn't necessarily make you good at it. And this may come as a shock to you, but having a degree in music composition definitely does NOT mean you are a good keyboardist, least of all a good metal one. Nowhere will you see a degree or even a university class based on "metal keyboards." Twit.

Abigail Williams is not black metal. Your third paragraph isn't worth responding to due to its complete irrelevance.

Have fun ranting in response.
Click to expand...

Dude you wrote way more in your posts plus all of your shit talking on to this band, hypocritical much? All I am saying is you are some loser writing poor reviews on the internet with no credentials what so ever. While you are masturbating in front of your computer and not doing much else, bands like AW are creating something which has an actual impact on the metal scene. Think about that next time you decide to write another purely insulting review.
 
First: I love this band! I became an instant fan after seeing them open for Dark Funeral. It was a great day when I stumbled upon the fact that they had reformed.

I bought the disc at their show in Sacramento, CA. It is everything I love about the genre. If this band keeps going in the direction they're headed, they will be on (or close to) the top of the heap. I've listened to their disc more than any other metal disc I've purchased in years. I can hardly wait for more.

SRS
 
-Featuring ex-Black Dahlia Murder drummer Zach Wilson-

Your a fucking idiot. If your going to literally write something that long and detailed about a band you should at least get the name right.....Its Gibson
 
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