Abigail Williams - Legend EP

Genre: Black Metal
Name: Abigail Williams
Album: Legend (2007)
And mark this — let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.

This was a landmark moment for me. Back in the good old days, when the HMV metal section was three units wide, and they had bands other than the big four and Taking Back Sunday, I found this for but a trifle and snapped it up. I later found where I'd heard the name before - Arthur Miller's The Crucible, based on the Salem Witch Trials, hence the quote above (On a side note, it's a good play. Go out into the real world and see it some time). Anyway, I had my first black metal album, and I've never regretted it.

It is, unfortunately, quite short - 20 minutes, 5 songs - but it is brilliant. The Conqueror Wyrm is, for me, the flagship track. Its introduction catches you like a sever dose of cholera, and the sudden slow section stop your heart with sorrowful sublimity. Then as the song fades away and you are left with a crackling recording of an aged man, your pulse slowly fades away, flat-lining into the silence. Yes, this song probably isn't good for your health, but nothing fun ever is. Like catching bullets in the gap between your ear and your skull. That would explain why, with only one full-length release, they've already got 18 ex-members.

But its not just the one track that's awesome. The piano in Watchtower is exquisite, the vocals permanently sound just like a banshee "sucking a scream to stab me with", the drummer is probably the first octopus-human hybrid, and the guitar lines are simply superb. The lyrics aren't perhaps the most unique, but they're certainly not bad.

As always, however, there are moments where you suspect that they felt obliged to make the track longer but couldn't come up with anything, so just put some notes together and played them really fast. But fortunately these moments are few and far between, and even when they do occur, they're blissfully brief, and, at any rate, no worse than plenty of other bands.

In short, the whole thing is rather good, and is what got me into Black Metal in the first place. Go have a listen, and you'll see why they have always been in my ten favourite bands.

Summary: Melodic Black Metal, done very well
Lyrical Themes: Nonsensical metaphors in general, based on death, darkness and the cosmos. Some simply based around quotes.
Rating: 8/10

Track listing:
1. From A Buried Heart
2. Like Carrion Birds
3. The Conqueror Wyrm
4. Watchtower
5. Procession Of The Aeons

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