Abigail
King Diamond's classic tale of a haunted man and a monstrous rebirth
Note; To read my first article on King Diamond and his album The Eye, from seven years ago, click here.
I'll preface this by stating that, verily, I've been plumbing the mysteries of King Diamond's Abigail since the Good Year 1991, or thereabouts.
King Diamond is a scarily corpse-painted nightmare heavy metal legend that sings high, operatic falsetto over charging classic metal riffs and haunted gothic orchestration, calling forth demonic forces and rising both to the full-moon heavens of haunt before descending to the bowels of gutter-snot, demonic, growling, pukey demon rock n' rot snivel... too many superlatives. You get the picture.
King (real name Kim Bendix Petersen) has been holding forth his Court of the Mad King for many, many decades, spreading his UnGospel of dark, evocative wickedness over high-concept horror albums such as Conspiracy, Fatal Portrait, The Eye, The Spider's Lullaby, Voodoo, The Puppet Master, and on and on. He's iconic, and his albums are less albums than audio novels readymade to pump fear and wonder at the forces of Hell, as they plunge the listener into the infernal void wherein no light dwells...
Vide Abigail, his second album under the King Diamond moniker (he previously had recorded with Mercyful Fate, a very similar project and another iconic and influential band, one that helped inspire the untrammeled awesomeness of Metallica), a gothic dark ride to the very center of the crypt of terror.
Beginning with a moving eulogy by a demonic force that informs us they are here to "Lay to rest, Abigail LaFey, who we now know was first born dead, on the seventh day of July, seventeen-seventy-seven," we are then launched by the spectral carriage through a galloping forty-five minutes of sonic assault, which moves, like a gyrating dervish, through deep, dark pools of Eighties heavy metal butt rock, and then alternates great, high, scaly walls of technically excellent riffing and shredding solos, the steady pounding of the jackbooted drums alternating the phantasmal keyboard pieces that bring us further into the dark than we ever dared go.
Miriam and Jonathan LaFey are inheriting the unhappy home of their ancestor, the Count de LaFey, who, on the Seventh Day of July as mentioned before, threw his wife from the top of the stairs after suspecting her of infidelity. A more measured response may have been called for...Miriam and Jonathan, already apprised of the situation by the mysterious seven Black Horsemen, who appear at the beginning of the tale to warn that if they take possession of the accursed old manse, "eighteen will become nine."...I'm certain of it.
In the end, it appears that the spirit of Abigail has returned, that she "is the life, inside your wife" (Miriam), and that she, or the Black Horsemen, or somebody is causing the church bells to chime. Also, we get a ghostly visit from the Count de LaFey, who reveals that, in 1777, he threw his beloved wife down the stairs to her death. What monstrous thing erupted from her unhallowed womb? Or was it the adultery the Count suspected her of?
What was born from that sin? What? What?
Abigail is what.
There is a thing lurking in the crypt below that is the repository of all fears. The fear that is the womb, the mad birth, the Sin that Never is Expiated. The familial, cursed bloodline.
And the promise of a hideous ghoul's repast. Miriam reveals the dark, dire thing that has resurrected within her.
King Diamond's gothic nightmares are operatic, metal meditations, suffused with grand instrumentation, a flawless heavy rock symphony combining a shadowed canopy of complex riffs, galloping drumbeats, keyboard interludes suggesting keys caressed by the spectral, ectoplasmic fingers of the departed returned; a heavy metal whirlwind that seeks to find the hidden key to the locked room, wherein Abigail waits below...
And she laughs.
But smiles no more.
Links:
My book: Cult Films and Midnight Movies: From High Art to Low Trash Volume 1 (Paperback)
My book: Cult Films and Midnight Movies: From High Art to Low Trash Volume 1 (Ebook)
About the Creator
Tom Baker
Author of Haunted Indianapolis, Indiana Ghost Folklore, Midwest Maniacs, Midwest UFOs and Beyond, Scary Urban Legends, 50 Famous Fables and Folk Tales, and Notorious Crimes of the Upper Midwest.: http://tombakerbooks.weebly.com
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