(Andy Synn provides some advance insight into the new album from Abigail Williams, out 18 July)
Let me be frank about something… I have been lucky enough to have had access to this album for much, much longer than most people.
Long enough, in fact, for me to fall in love with it, fall out of love with it, rediscover it all over again, and have the opportunity to totally reappraise it in light of my long-running relationship with the band and their music.
And, let me tell you, there’s a chance that maybe… just maybe… this will finally be the album which garners Abigail Williams the respect they’ve long deserved.
But, you know what? Even if it doesn’t it feels like the group – or, to be more precise, mainman Ken Sorceron, the one true constant in the band throughout the years – have long since stopped caring, as so much of A Void Within Existence feels totally unconcerned with the expectations and artificial limitations imposed by others and wholly focussed on walking its own path (of broken glass).
As such, moments like the punchy blackened gang-shouts during tracks like (ever so) bold and bombastic opener “Life, Disconnected” and blast-fuelled barn-burner “Still Nights” and the crooning, contemplative clean vocals which add so much character to cathartic closer “No Less Than Death” show little regard for what common convention says should be allowed in Black Metal (though, to be fair, they’re far from alone in this, as many of the best Black Metal bands these days refuse to fenced in by the established formula).
What’s particularly apparent to me, however – as someone who has been tracking the band’s development ever since the beginning – is that while A Void Within Existence continues the ongoing evolution of the Abigail Williams sound (the extended range of the guitars in particular adds an extra sense of depth and tonal texture to the record’s expansive, almost cinematic, identity) it also reaffirms, to my ears at least, that they haven’t really changed over the years anywhere near as much as some critics and commentators would have you believe.
The feverish intensity and scorching melodic hooks of “Void Within”, for example, recall the best bits of the band’s underappreciated second album, In The Absence of Light, while moments like the brooding simmer ‘n’ surge of “Nonexistence” and the sombre, string-inflected second half of “Talk To Your Sleep” (whose opening bars of eight-string Immortal worship make an instant and unforgettable impression) provide a subtle and seamless call back to the days of Becoming.
Hell, there’s even flashes of the weird psychic-nihilism of The Accuser (“Embrace the Chasm”) and the taut, rhythmic riff attack of In The Shadow of a Thousand Suns (“Still Nights”) to be found here and there… though anyone looking for a full on throwback to the Legend EP will probably end up disappointed, as I’m pretty sure that one has been fully disavowed at this point.
What all this says to me is that Sorceron and co. – whether consciously or not – have attempted (and, I would argue, succeeded) to condense and refine their instantly-recognisable approach to Black Metal (though I doubt the group even care about the accuracy of that label any more) into a form that is both tighter (by my count this is the second shortest record of their career) and more technical (drummer Mike Heller is, if anything, even more of a monster behind the kit here than ever, while the absolutely lethal lead guitar work plays an even more stand-out role as well) while also expanding and enhancing the dynamic scope of their signature sound.
And yet, perhaps the most telling thing I’ve observed in the run up to the album’s release is how often Ken has spoken about the sense of loneliness and isolation which accompanied, and inspired, its creation… but maybe that’s just the price you have to pay for choosing – though whether it’s truly a choice, or simply the inevitable consequence of finally embracing the world’s rejection and severing whatever ties still remain – to stand alone.