'Abigail' is King Diamond's second album and it also sports a few of the best songs King has ever made. As almost every King Diamond recording, this also is a theme album. And as before, the themes are blackish; satanism, devils and spirits. Some people say that King Diamond sounds like Iron Maiden, but I say: To hell with them! This has nothing to do with Maiden except perhaps the very strong heavy metal sound and a certain professionalism.

I'm not going to go very deep to the story, but as always, it's a very thrilling ghost story involving murder, spirits and possession. Find it out yourself.

And considering that this is only the second album for King Diamond it sounds great. On the guitars are Michael Denner and Andy La Rocque, on drums Mikkey Dee and on bass Timi Hansen. All doing a spectacular job. But, the strongest element in King Diamond is King himself. His voice is so original that you either love it or hate it. He varies the voice a lot according to the characters in the story, sometimes singing a very high falsetto and straight after that growling very deep.

And, as always, there's so much versatility here, that it would propably be futile to try and explain it. The music varies from very dark undertones to almost operatic sections of pure heavy metal celebration. There aren't any really bad songs, but perhaps some mediocre ones. But you'll just need to put on the seven and a half minute 'Black Horsemen' to be assured of the genius behind these songs.

Influences from King Diamond can be heard on so many modern bands, that you just have to get at least one album of King.

Reviewed by Tommi
01/03/2002 12:33