Review Summary: Abigail Williams' darkest and most aggressive album so far - pure excellence!
Reviewing the discography of the American band Abigail Williams so far, we encounter a truly interesting body of work. Shedding their early style, which was a unique blend of metalcore and atmospheric black metal, they truly exploded onto the scene by adopting the styles of Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, and Cradle of Filth with their first full-length album,
In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns (which remains fantastic to this day). Over the years, through a mix of better and worse albums, we have arrived at the band's current sixth full-length release, which is now dominated by complete darkness...
The album title itself,
A Void Within Existence, along with cover art exude an extremely somber mood, and in my opinion, the music itself successfully captures this atmosphere.
A Void Within Existence is surprisingly dark (standing out in this regard within their discography), and right the album's opening track almost bursts through the door with its dissonant sounds and churning, heavy, dark riffs. This powerful and surprisingly aggressive style essentially accompanies the entire album, only occasionally allowing the listener, swept away by the vortex, to grab a brief moment of respite. This perhaps first truly happens in the last quarter of the track titled "Nonexistence," where clean guitars and an elegantly flowing guitar solo almost make one forget the bottomlessness of the abyss of darkness... But this feeling is only temporary. The crushing riffs, the often dissonant melodies lurking in the background, and Mike Heller's very exciting drum work (with not a few death metal influences) would likely achieve the desired effect on their own, but based on my musical experience so far, I am sure that Dave Otero's mixing (not detracting from the band's genius, Ken Sorceron's merits) added an extra element that truly brought out the maximum potential of this album. As an example, I would cite Dave's work on the Akhlys albums—there, one can definitely discover the same deeply dark atmosphere!
The album reaches its peak in the last two tracks. "Embrace the Chasm," as its title suggests, is the culmination of this darkly swirling atmosphere, which I can only describe with words like: gigantic, intense, tension-building, a massive riff hurricane (by the way, in my opinion, Blut Aus Nord is the true grandmaster of this intensity and tension-building). However, this track also "softens" towards the end, providing an elegant transition to the album's most unique piece. If I may say so: "No Less Than Death" crowns this album. Ken Sorceron's clean vocals (unique to this song on the album) take center stage in the closing track, which is a post-black masterpiece! This song is simply so beautiful, so captivating, so contrasting, and so elegant that it is hardly possible to describe it in words...
it must be heard!
Honestly, the greatness of
A Void Within Existence caught me completely off guard. In short, I can only say that, in my opinion, Abigail Williams has absolutely hit the mark with this album and delivered one of the best releases of the year.
