Britain's latest offering of Abigail's Mercy
It seems that Britain is finally catching on to the current wave of female fronted metal bands unleashing their feminine beauty and force upon our shores and as usual, though slowly, we have begun to see our own contributions and examples of 'Femme Fatale' work their way onto the scene. Already growing in popularity due to heavy public exposure, Hampshire based Season's End attack from the classic gothic metal side of the ring, wowing the crowds with driving melancholy riffs and chords and soaring angelic vocals that charm and entice. From Ireland hail an unlikely blend of traditional Irish Folk music and rash, untamed metal courtesy of Cruachan, the music having a wild, almost uncontrollable element of madness within it that is hopelessly addictive. Now, from the darkest depths of Staffordshire in the cold, miserable sector of the midlands comes our newest card in the game, Abigail's Mercy.
Opting not to follow the path of angelic gothic metal sound in carbon copy fashion, Abigail's Mercy create a sound in the vein of the classic style of such bands as Black Sabbath and Sisters of Mercy while still retaining a slight hint of the atmospheric and angelic vocal qualities of such bands as Nightwish and Lacuna Coil. In other words, Abigail's Mercy are a bit of an oddball band, spanning a huge horizon of styles and sounds. Their debut album sees a whole range of surprises courtesy of lead vocalist Lindsey and it does seem as though the whole album is really just geared up to explore the different colours of her voice, on further listening though it is apparent that the band are just as versatile as Lindsey's vocal range. The opening track gives the impression that at first the band is mainly geared up towards atmospheric, dark and gothic metal sound. With moody, distorted keyboards and angry vocals reciting an opening pose, the music paves the way for a strangely haunting chorus of vocals from Lindsey, displaying nicely her range of voice to full potential. At first it seems like the song might really build up into something quite powerful, perhaps something on par with 'Haunted' by Evanescence for example, but alas the arrival of weak and unfeeling monotone male vocals delivers a dark voice of disappointment. With little show of any intonational skills at all, the vocals of Steve do little to support the raspy and slightly forced soprano voice of the female vocalist and indeed, the two do not really work well together, somewhat killing the mood of the piece. It is apparent from this song that atmospheric and gentle melodic gothic metal is not something that this band do particularly well at and is misleading as an opening track, as the rest of the album will later prove.
The following track 'Just For You' explores a style that both vocalists are obviously more comfortable with and better suited to. With dark catching riffs reminiscent of bands such as Black Sabbath and Alice In Chains, the music retains an 'old school' kind of groove. The vocals are rough and raspy and the collaboration between male and female vocals works a whole lot better here then in the previous track. Lindsey's vocals in particular seem less forced here than they were within 'To Hell With Angels', as it is apparent she is working within a style more suited to her tomboyish, grating vocals and the song does better with displaying the good qualities of the band such as well structured bass and guitar rhythms giving a real sense of mood. Laid back and feel-good, 'Just For You' is a good example track of what exactly the band do right, especially with Lindsey fronting the song alone. 'Keep Me Coming' is another display of catchy melodies and classic sounds. Sounding reminiscent of the kind of metal that bikers clad in leather would listen to while speeding down a highway, the guitars create a real kind of drive that keeps the music pumping forward. The track focuses more on Steve's vocals once again but this time the music is better suited to his range and displays his vocals in a better light, not drawing so much attention to his lack of intonation due to the naturally raspy, grating sound of the style of this brand of metal.
'Ashes' is a complete contrast to the rest of the album altogether, sounding more like something a rising mainstream indie-rock band would churn out, compared with the much heavier music the band prefer to work with. Seeing influences drawn from the gentler side of Jon Bon Jovi's tracks right through to the soft rocked out sounds of Garbage's ballads, this track has a mellow, chilled out appeal so smooth and crooning it almost sends you to sleep. That is, before it bursts into a real funked out jazzy number to close, intended to add to the sheer contrast of the track itself compared to the rest of the album, but it just sounds really weird and out of place with the music instead. Again, this song seems to have been purely created with the intention of showcasing Lindsey's vocal abilities in mind. In this track though, it really does work to show just how flexible and versatile her voice really is. Afterall, being capable of switching between a gentle, soft and feminine tone of voice into a dirtier, rasping and grating black metal timbre several times within any one track is not something everybody can do. 'Ashes' is a lovely track that really adds a touch of colour and feeling to an album mostly comprising of black metal influence.
However varied the album may be though, the band themselves still have a lot of growing to do. Unlike other female fronted British competitors, Abigail's Mercy still have that very amateur 'garage produced' sound about them and the vocals, especially Steve's, though full of promise are still very young and lacking any real sense of depth or power behind them. Their interest and execution of dabbling in a great many styles is admirable and with time, may prove to work in their favour as far as success is concerned, but their sound on the whole is very bland and mediocre. However, time and work will tell exactly how this band will fare in the race to become the best British female fronted band.