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

Myspace (no songs from this EP)
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Netherbird Dual Review

Genre: Melodic Black Metal

Name: Netherbird

Album: The Ghost Collector (2008) and Covered In Darkness (EP, 2009)


Malice Through the Looking Glass

I have good news and bad news: The bad news is that I won't be able to buy a Netherbird CD this weekend. The good news is that they offer two available for download on their website! With the booklets as .PDF files! They, my friends, are awesome, which is only further proven by the fact that, on their facebook page, if you ask a question, leave a comment or just headbutt your keyboard, they reply. Awww, shucks... ain't that just dandy?

Netherbird, until very recently, had no line up - that was, apparently, part of the point. The vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist shared "a vision on how to write and record metal music without the limitations of a set line up or metal". They, however, have now procured a bassist, presumably from some form of lost-and-found, and have set themselves to release their second full length CD on May 15th (besides this, they have three each of EPs and Singles).

I plugged my ears in and bathed in the intro to The Ghost Collector. This track, "Dead Grid Incantation", has lyrics worthy of Carach Angren, and music just as good. The postponement of the final whisper of terror only adds to the tension, which is shattered by the sonic violence (and we all love gratuitous violence) of "The Blackest Breed", the first song of theirs I heard, and the only song I needed to hear to get hooked. The sublime blending of high-pitched black metal shrieks and deep death-metal doom-laden vocals create a chorus of epic sonic attributes, and the pair of tracks set the perfect tone for the following songs.

And not only are the vocals good, but the lyrics are poetry par excelence. The epitome of this can be found in the second track - "The darkness is our salvation now, / We have all become malice in wonderland" is simply exquisite. Ever since I heard it, I've been cursing myself for not having thought of it first.

The rest of the songs do not disappoint. The exemplary examples of black metal are rounded off brilliantly with the strings of an orchestra, and are interspersed with the occasional atmospheric piece, the most notable, and probably my favourite, being "Boulevard Black (Reprise)".

This excellent track is preceded by the centrepiece of the album, "Boulevard Black": 14 minutes of snares, bass drums, guitars, keyboards, piano, an orchestra second to none (well, maybe London Philharmonic) and, of course, screams which pierce your very soul and drag you down to the lowest levels of Beelzebub's palace of punishment and pain. And following this dramatic track, you are met by my aforementioned favourite: the piano is simply excellent, once again bringing back memories of "Electronic Voice Phenomena". In short, these guys really need to tour with Carach Angren.

Having now turned my attention to the EP, "Covered In Darkness" (nice pun), I found myself desperate to find out who these bands were. Annihilator and Paradise Lost are just outside my musical circle, with the former only existing on a Painkiller live album and the latter constantly nearly breaking in, but always superseded by someone else. However, this EP has been the greatest propaganda on behalf of the four bands covered that I've ever met. Paradise Lost are covered to begin it, with the quite scary intro to "As I Die" rattling the bones before we move on, and eventually we reach "Alison Hell", by Annihilator, which has captured my ear and my heart. All the covers are excellent, and inspire me to both explore the covered bands music, none of which I have heard before, and also to buy more Netherbird. Anyone who can cover something so well (especially songs not originally made for black metal) clearly has a very musically talented mind.

Summary: Excellent examples of why keyboards should be compulsory for any Black Metal band. Instantly shooting up to at least my top three, if not higher.
Rating: 8/10
Track listing:

The Ghost Collector
1. Dead Grid Incantation
2. The Blackest Breed
3. Carcass Symphony
4. Adrift On The Sea Of Misery
5. LightHouse Eternal (Laterna Magika)
6. Hidden Beneath Flesh Pest Ridden
7. The Beauty Of Bones
8. Forever Mounful
9. Adrift Towards Eternity
10. Blood Orchid
11. Ashen Nectar
12. Boulevard Black
13. Boulevard Black (Reprise)

Covered In Darkness
1. As I Die (as made famous by Paradise Lost)
2. Nepenthe (as made famous by Sentenced)
3. Alison Hell (as made famous by Annihilator)
4. Firmament Vacation (as made famous by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives)

Myspace

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