It’s the time of year when people who make year-end lists start the tortuous mental process of sifting and ranking what they’ve heard. We’ll be doing that soon, but we’re also looking further down the road in anticipation of what 2015 will bring. And one record it will bring that’s already on our list of highly anticipated new releases is the next album by Abigail Williams.
Today we’re fortunate to bring you a couple of teasers for what the album holds in store, as well as some words from vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron about the new album.
What you’re about to hear are two early versions of songs that will appear on the band’s fourth album coming next year via Candlelight Records, the successor to 2012’s excellent Becoming: “Forever Kingdom of Dirt” and “Will, Wish and Desire”. The very talented line-up for these recordings is as follows — with one special guest:
Ken Sorceron — vocals, guitar
Ian Jekelis — guitar
Jeff Wilson (Wolvhammer, ex-Nachtmystium) — guitar
Charlie Fell (Lord Mantis, ex-Nachtmystium, Von) — drums
Will Lindsay (Indian, ex-Wolves in the Throne Room) — bass
Neill Jameson (Krieg, Twilight) — guest vocals and lyrics on “Forever Kingdom of Dirt”
The two songs were produced by Sorceron, recorded mainly in the band’s practice space in Chicago and mixed where he now lives in L.A. Before they are finalized for the album, there will be different mixes and masters, and possibly some re-tracking, but as things now stand the songs are already fantastic.
“Forever Kingdom of Dirt” is rough, raw, and grim, much of it sounding like a hopeless night at an overworked trauma unit, with more broken bodies than there are hands to save them. It begins with a fusillade of blasting and then pulls back into a bleak, slow-rolling rhythm with an otherworldly ambiance. These divergent states trade places, the assault and the fallout, until the mid-point — when the song begins to transform after a harrowing shriek.
And what follows, like a beating heart at the bitter black core of the song, is an absolutely killer melodic hook, a rocking riff accompanied by a rumbling drum beat that’s going to infiltrate the memory of anyone who hears it. You should also prepare yourself to be scalded by a vocal acid bath — as usual, N. Imperial holds nothing back
The shimmering guitar solo at the beginning of “Will, Wish and Desire” digs the hooks in even earlier than the preceding song, and the pulsating vitality of the music never lets up. Anchored by a compulsive rock beat and bursts of double-bass, the song drives with infectious energy, with flashing guitars and sweeping melody.
It’s a layered, multi-textured, addictive piece of music, and at least to these ears there’s an uplifting, open-armed, soul-baring quality to the song, and its emotional intensity is magnified by Sorceron’s absolutely searing vocals.
Abigail Williams have never stayed rooted in one place for very long, and these songs are a sign that their musical evolution continues. If the rest of the album is on par with these two tracks, it’s going to be a highlight of 2015.
*****
I asked Sorceron for any thoughts he wanted to share with us about the songs or the album, and here is his response:
“In early 2014 we started touring again and resumed the writing and recording of a new album in Chicago at our practice spot. Though we had started work on this album in late 2012, 2013 was spent working on the Lord Mantis album and dealing with various degrees of grease in our personal lives. After we got the bulk of the production down in Chicago, I ended up moving to Los Angeles to try and straighten out my life while periodically resuming production, and this is the result of our work.
“We wanted to release a couple songs this year while they are still at least somewhat fresh to us since we have no idea when the actual album will come out for various reasons, but we hope that it will be spring of 2015. Life keeps getting in the way of completion, but that’s to be expected when you have burned as hard as most of us have over the years working on music and ignoring the rest of your life; it eventually catches up with you.
“Musically this album is very diverse, and the overall vibe is way more negative compared to our last album, Becoming. Artistically, this is the best lineup I’ve had the pleasure to work with over the years. You can hopefully expect an announcement about artwork and an album title before the end of the year — the art is being handled by Stevie Floyd (Taurus, Dark Castle) — but for now enjoy these two songs.”
https://www.facebook.com/abigailwilliamsofficial/
20 Responses to “AN NCS PREMIERE: TWO NEW SONGS FROM ABIGAIL WILLIAMS”
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The songs are memorable, the desperate and grim melody makes all very intense, I hope for the release on the early months of the new upcoming year!
Becoming was my favorite album of 2012, and these tracks indicate that I will probably love the album of which they will become elements. I think they played draft versions of these songs when they performed in Kansas City last May. They played something new at least that sounded good to me, and about which Sorceron said were just beginning versions of songs. Stevie Floyd’s art is terrific, so that is a nice benefit too. I am really happy that these guys reversed the decision to put Abigail Williams in mothballs. (That last part sounds kind of weird – I’m leaving it. “What did you do with Grandma Abigail?” “I put her in mothballs. Might need her for a smoothie later.”)
Side-note: from now on when people ask me how I am doing I will respond that I am dealing with various degrees of grease in my personal life.
Or just say, “I’ve been greased”. And don’t forget to add kale to your grandma smoothie, but freeze the kale first to enhance the flavor.
Cinnamon makes everything taste better.
I think my grandma would have agreed with you, because after she died I helped my dad go through her kitchen, and I found several containers of cinnamon in her spice collection.
And on a more serious note, I was also a huge fan of Becoming, but I think these two songs are among the best AW have ever done. I find myself being drawn back to them over and over — they’ve both got real staying power.
Anyone else thinks that beginning and some more of “Will, Wish and Desire” sounds like Eulogy IV by Nachmystium? Not a bad thing tho, considering their current lineup.
Nonetheless, I love all their stuff, especially Becoming. Can’t wait for the release.
that’s a great lineup, the new songs sound killer : )
I guess since nachtmystium is no more, they thought “hey we can just blatantly rip off Nachtmystium so people will pay more attention to us”…..bogus
More like the guys that wrote the songs for Nachtmystium might get some credit for them this time.
^^^ This. And there are so many other reasons why that comment is off-base that I don’t know where to start. So I won’t. Probably wouldn’t do a lick of good anyway.
I wrote the exact same response on Charlie’s facebook page. It amazes me how many people don’t understand these guys were the song writers for Nachtmystium (among others).
This isn’t MetalSucks, keep the dumb comments for that website.
I always thought AW was a decent band. I am loving the Nachtmystium influence. I think its not fair to call it a ripoff since they have two former members. In fact these two tracks are better than a lot of the stuff that was on the last NM album (which I still liked).
Why do people even care about this band? They have never done anything original and if anything they’re are a run of the mill have your parents pay to get you popular band, which is probably 100 percent true. Basically your typical steal music from the unheard artists from the underground and make your fans believe you are the most original artist ever.
Wow… that’s pretty much all completely wrong. Well played.
Really? Can’t wait for this zine and others to cover some random band from say Chile with no industry connections shitty recordings yet an original sound. That will never happen. Why is that?
That’s a challenge. It’s boring to constantly read about the usual suspects over and over again.
If you think we don’t cover underground bands with no labels and no industry connections, including bands from Chile, then you haven’t been around here for very long.
I can’t believe people hate this band so much. I am a fan of many styles of metal, especially metal with a “blackish” feel. Every album that this band has done has been amazing. The fact that Ken switches styles every album is even more impressive, at this point they have taken various forms of black metal and nailed then all too perfection. The problem is the death core kids hate AW now due to the change to a raw black metal style, and the die hard black metal base hates them because they started as a more metal core type of band. Too many idiots!! Every AW album has been amazing. All you haters just go back to your dark throne