ABIGAIL WILLIAMS - Becoming [Review]

Genre: Symphonic/Atmospheric Black Metal
Label: Candlelight Records
Released: 24th January
Reviewer: Monish Shringi

Originating from Phoenix, Arizona and now settled in Los Angeles, Abigail Williams have released their third full length album entitled ‘Becoming’. Vocalist/Guitarist Ken Sorceron has pretty much handled all production aspects of this album. I personally haven’t been a big fan of this band but the new album does have something in store for my liking. After their second full length, the band identifies black metal as their primary genre of music, breaking a shift from metalcore. After several comparisons with Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth, the new album may finally lead this band into having a sound of their very own.

“Ascension Sickness”, the first track of the album, begins with a nice atmospheric intro and heads in straight with shredded guitars and blast beats. In the first half, the vocals seemed to be slightly damped and unclear. They could have been raised to a better extent as compared to what the song has to offer. The latter half consists of a mix of clean and distorted guitars, demonic vocals and a more emphatic finishing.

The next two songs, “Radiance” and “Elestial” seem to have somewhat of a doom influence, and that mixture with black metal is something what the band has managed to pull off quite well. The vocals were better structured and sounded more to what one would expect.

“Infinite Fields of Mind” has a very enjoyable and delicate clean intro with a cool atmospheric background. The song had a good overall balance of clean and heavy and a solid traditional black metal outro. There’s a small interlude track which finally leads to the last last track in the album entitled, “Beyond the Veil”, which has to be my favourite. There were a lot of Nordic influences in the interlude and the final track, of which the band is also constantly recognised for. The melodic guitar licks along with the Nordic orchestrations, sounded warm, gentle and profound. They were once again mixed really well with the black metal components.

Overall, the band developed a more mature and concrete sound as compared to their previous efforts. I will definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of black, doom and symphonic metal. The intros and outros were well rounded off along with the primary black metal dominance. It has to be said that if the band continue in this manner, there are definitely greater aspects to look forward to.

Click here to order "Becoming"