ABIGAIL WILLIAMS “Knights” /TS/

Debut full-length album by American Atmospheric/Symphonic Black Metal band.
The mix of styles, instruments, aesthetics, and the overall structure of each song is so vastly unique, emotionally driven, heavy and brutal, symphonic and delicate, and epically colossal!
“Shadow of a Thousand Suns” is a recording that far surpasses any and all preconceived expectations from this still very young band. Primal yet complex; aggressive with melodic sophistication, the album is without doubt one that sets a new standard!
Candlelight Records, 2008 (CANDLE215CD). Made in UK. First press.


Tracklist:
1. I 00:39
2. The World Beyond 06:16
3. Acolytes 04:59
4. A Thousand Suns 05:08
5. Into the Ashes 04:38
6. Smoke and Mirrors 04:52
7. A Semblance of Life 02:06
8. Empyrean: Into the Cold Wastes 06:15
9. Floods 05:47
10. The Departure 05:55
Total playing time: 46:35

Second full-length album by American Black Metal band.
The album moves away from the Symphonic Black Metal sound and keyboard usage featured on "In the Shadow Of A Thousand Suns" to a more Pure Black Metal sound.
After all, the New York-based band has suffered enough prejudice from genre extremists due to a momentary dalliance in Metalcore early on in its career, not to mention the relatively commercial style of synth-wrought Orchestral Black Metal heard on the band's first album. Many observers believed this style owed way too much to England's widely reviled (and contradictorily wildly successful) Cradle of Filth, whose perceived opportunism made them black metal's ultimate sellout poster boys, but it's simply not fair to condemn Abigail Williams to the very same death sentence so soon, especially in light of the band's much improved second album, 2010's "In The Absence Of Light", which reveals a perfectly competent and oftentimes quite engaging collision of vicious aggression and ambitious songwriting grandeur.
Yes, it's true that Abigail Williams are still deriving most of their ideas from other established Black Metal names, but at least they're now reaching for the higher standards established by the likes of Dimmu Borgir and Bal-Sagoth, instead of Dani Filth's merry crew. Heck, Abigail Williams even achieve convincing shades of Emperor on the hauntingly epic highlight "The Mysteries that Bind the Flesh." Certainly, there is still nothing groundbreaking to be found on "In The Absence Of Light", but when you consider that 99 percent of the musical universe is guilty of committing the same sin, Abigail Williams' premature burning at the stake by Black Metal's self-proclaimed purists is hereby conclusively ruled as rank and unfair discrimination!
Candlelight Records, 2010 (CANDLE238CD). Made in UK. First press.


Tracklist:
1. Hope The Great Betrayel     6:44 
2. Final Destiny Of The Gods     8:15 
3. The Mysteries That Bind The Flesh     6:51 
4. Infernal Divide     4:59 
5. In Death Comes The Great Silence     6:17 
6. What Hells Await Me     4:47 
7. An Echo In Our Legends     4:59 
8. Malediction     7:01
Total playing time: 49:53