Abigail II: The Revenge

After then albums “Voodoo” and “House Of God”, which slightly disappointed me, King Diamond comes out with “Abigail II: The Revenge”. An album that surprised me in two ways. First because of the Mercyful Fate-like feel of especially the guitar parts and in the second place the overall mood of the album, comparable to that of “The Graveyard”.

I will be brief about the textual concept: of course the story, spread out over 13 songs, revolves around the experiences of Abigail and Jonathan after the tragic events of the first “Abigail” album, to which a lot of new elements have been added that will certainly be appreciated by the interested listener/fan.
“Abigail II” has also turned out to be a musical gem. King, is delighted with the achievements on “Abigail II” and you can certainly hear that: vocally –and this is obviously very important for a band featuring King Diamond- a lot more is happening than on the previous two, three albums as King brings out the “voices” again, and even has a six year old girl appear in “Sorry Dear”.

Partly because of the varying, expressive vocals (“Mommy”, “Broken Glass”) you can almost taste the atmosphere, something I haven’t really felt since “The Eye”. It’s clear that this album was put together with a lot of motivation, which is partly due to some new faces; First of all Hal Patino who was also in the band at the time of “Them”, Mercyful Fate guitarist Mike Wead and new drummer Matt Thompson. Songs like “Little One”, “The Wheelchair” and “Slippery Stairs” burst with the musical qualities of the individual band members, because of which the musical level of this tenth album is beyond any discussion.

And with an album once again superbly produced by Kol Marshall, with a total playing time of over 68 (!) minutes, the listener definitely gets value for his money. Bravo!