KING DIAMOND — Abigail (review)

KING DIAMOND — Abigail album cover Album · 1987 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Mjöllnir
Following a good but disjointed and muddled debut that only flirted with the concept format, Abigal remedies this in focusing on the dramatic gothic horror that the band had only touched on. This turned out to be a massive success, establishing all the hallmarks of King's post-Mercyful Fate style. Horror story concept, blistering reems of lead guitar trade-offs, light progressive elements, and the full use of King's incredible range to portray multiple characters all came to the fore. They had more or less followed the traditional metal rulebook but scrawled all over it with their own unique anotations.

I won't detail the plot here (as it's one that may give too much away in explaining it clearly) but it's one of the more creative ones King (the man himself) has come up with. The story is presented well in songs that follow each other with astonishing fluidity and enough variety to not get bogged down in the pitfall of staleness that many lesser metal bands fail to avoid. It's suprisingly catchy and every song has excitingly edgy riffs, sharp twists and turns in structure to balance the cheese factor (yes, it's high!) and horror cliché which will make this of interest to prog metal fans as well as more traditionally minded metalheads. "Arrival", "A Mansion in Darkness", "The Family Ghost", and "Black Horsemen" are my personal highlights.

By now the band was done warming up, and although I'd say the next album is the best overall, Abigail still has several unrivalled songs and really started the ball rolling for an incredible solo career, so I have to give it its 5 stars!
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
Vehemency wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Great to have you here!
Mjöllnir wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Thanks, am a big fan of progarchives but I'm more knowledgable about metal so think I can contribute here. I'm putting up the reviews I had on rate your music now and of course plan to continue with new stuff!
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Wow that´s a great review. Nice fluent language and you´re great at describing the music. It doesn´t hurt that I almost fully agree with every word either :-). More reviews from you please!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Reclamation Of I Metalcore
IMMINENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
In Their Sleep Deathcore
IN THEIR SLEEP
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Fall Of A King Deathcore
AGAINST THE TYRANTS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Maleficium - Part 1 Death Metal
PANZERCHRIST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Strategic Offensive Metalcore
STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Sunmancer - Doom Temple (Official Music Video)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Sunmancer - Chasm Darkly (Official Music Video)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed