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"Walk Beyond The Dark" is the fifth full length studio album from American extreme metal band Abigail Williams, released on the 15th November 2019 on the Blood Music label.
User Album Review
Walk Beyond The Dark has arrived, and it feels like the culmination of a decade-long search to find the 'real' Abigail Williams.
Walk Beyond The Dark takes aspects of the various different faces Abigail Williams have worn this decade, but delivers its own distinctive sound. "I Will Depart" is, if anything, closest to In The Absence Of Light, a measured, semi-melodic opener that is willing to unleash the blast beats, but which is less reliant on them than the at times overwhelming The Accuser. This song offers up some memorable riffs to get the neck moving, such as the rolling groove during which the song title is shrieked, and conjures a general ominous sense of impending peril, really announcing right off the bat how vital this latest incarnation of the band is. The closing moments of this song also reveal a new feature this time around; clean vocals, which unless my memory is failing me haven't previously popped up in any of the band's previous work. In this first instance, they are only wordless chants, but the next song, "Sun And Moon", features actual singing, and whilst Abigail Williams aren't going to redefine clean black metal vocals, they fit nicely into and enhance the songs in which they feature.
Whether Walk Beyond The Dark is the best work of Abigail Williams is up for debate; however, this is the album of theirs that most feels like it represents the band's vision, combining the strings and atmosphere of Becoming, the aggression of The Accuser and the meloblack riffing of In The Absence Of Light to deliver something that sounds truly their own, rather than an homage to Wolves In The Throne Room or Cradle Of Filth. It may be that the next Abigail Williams album will be yet another big departure, but if there was ever a time to focus on refining a sound rather than completely replacing it, this seems as good a time as any.
Reviewed by musclassia for metalstorm.net.
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