Abigail Williams have always been a bit of a tough nut to crack. How does one even classify them? Most say “black metal” but I think that’s a little too cut-and-dry for what they do. They were lumped in with the deathcore crowd way back in the day, which did not fit them at all, but also…they’re one of those bands that never quite seems to make the same album twice. That coupled with the heavy turnover in membership means it’s hard to pin them down with consistency, but I was absolutely enamored with 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark, so when A Void Within Existence was announced, I had to tune in to see what’s different.
“This record was born in the quiet hours, when everything felt hollow. A Void Within Existence isn’t just a title – it’s a feeling I couldn’t shake while writing. There’s a loneliness threaded through these songs that came from somewhere deeper than I expected,” muses frontman, songwriter and sole constant Ken Sorceron. “…this is the most honest I’ve ever been. A Void Within Existence is more than an album; it’s a crucible [author’s note: NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK] – a journey through the fire where only shadow and silence remain.”
So the major shift this time around isn’t necessarily in style, but in tone. True to vision, A Void Within Existence is a broodingly dark album that delivers on its promise of pushing further into the sonic and emotional extreme. This release marks more than twenty years of Abigail Williams as a project, and while Sorceron has been the main driving force and sometimes the sole member, A Void Within Existence sees the lineup expanding into a quartet that once again features who else but Mike Heller on drums (is he the Josh Freese of the metal world?). Couple that with the predictably stellar production of Mr. Dave Otero (of The Back of Dave Otero’s Head fame) and you have something that blends razor sharp guitar tones, brutal and chaotic drums, a deft amount of melody and bleak introspection. Even just looking at Eliran Cantor’s sublime cover, you kind of get the whole picture wrapped up really nicely.
A Void Within Existence kicks off with “Life Disconnected”, a mostly instrumental fare that belies the black metal underneath with a nasty, discordant chugging riff and off-kilter leads that read much more in the death metal wheelhouse than anything Abigail Williams has done in a while. It’s a cool way to kick off the album, and there are shades of this death metal touch peppered throughout, like the lock-step rhythm in the mid-section of “Still Nights” and the 8-string groan of “Talk to Your Sleep”. Fear not, though: this is still an album firmly rooted in black metal, and tracks like “Still Nights” (minus the aforementioned mid-section) and the cathartic “Nonexistence” are some of the most raw and ripping Sorceron and company are capable of. I think one of the most unexpected surprises is the lead work. Solos like the ones in “Talk to Your Sleep”, the end of closer “No Less Than Death” and “Life Disconnected” are downright virtuosic. I don’t think that Sorceron gets enough credit for being the guitar player he is, but he’s been a multi-instrumentalist in lots of other bands, so clearly he’s got the chops, and he flexes them in spades here.
It’s been a long six years waiting for a follow-up to Walk Beyond the Dark, but A Void Within Existence scratches the itch for me in exactly the way I was hoping it would. Abigail Williams are a band that seem to do things on their own time, so who knows when the next one will be on the horizon, and what changes will come in the meantime? Until then, this is a record that I am happy to keep in rotation for how well it captures the moments in which it was crafted.
-Ian
A Void Within Existence is out now on Agonia Records. For more information on Abigail Williams, visit their Facebook page.