KING DIAMOND
ABIGAIL
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King Diamond. Just seeing the name conjures all kinds of dark, creepy, diabolical imagery.
‘Abigail’ (which is King Diamond’s second solo album) is the first King Diamond album that truly captured his master horror storytelling craft, spinning tales of “living” haunted houses, betrayal and evil murderous zombie demon babies.
It is by far one of THE most important concept albums EVER in the history of metal (and most certainly one of THE BEST horror stories ever told!).
So fix your favorite relaxer, block out an hour or so of your day and JOIN US as we dive into King Diamond’s ‘Abigail’ and go through the plot of the story, the various characters, the tracks and some of the eerie and “haunting” factoids about what very well may be one of the finest moments in the horror metal genre.
Released: June 15, 1987
Recorded: Dec. 1986 to Feb. 1987 Soundtrack Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark
Fun Facts about Abigail (courtesy of billboard.com “7 Things You Didn't Know About King Diamond's Landmark 'Abigail'”)
TRACKS
FUNERAL:
Fade in: A darkened room, the Black Horsemen surrounding a small coffin containing the corpse of something unspeakable.
Clouds erupt as O’Brian steps forward.
The act must be done in the forest at the chapel….
(Earlier)…
ARRIVAL:
The horse drawn carriage pulls along slowly as Jonathan spots the house “That must be it!” he shouts, urging the horses to quicken their gait along the dark dirt path surrounded by trees and a certain unspeakable “heaviness” that seems to linger like the air before a summer thunderstorm.
This album is one of those that has that energy to it; kinda like the first Black Sabbath.
You just instantly get sucked into this other dimension.
Abigail is so visual for me, in fact, that I’m making it a point to announce here on Metal Nerdery that I’d like to put together a screenplay and make Abigail into a movie with King Diamond’s endorsement & involvement!!! I think it would be fucking bad ass!!
Lots of symbolism: 18 is 9: Miram was younger (she was 18) and pregnant (9)…there’s your math.
As I recall, I thought she was also 9 years Jonathan LaFey’s junior.
The exchange between Jonathan and the Horsemen strikes me as eerie; disappearing at late dusk, when the shadow realm is beginning to wake from its daytime slumber.
The drums fade as the horsemen ride off.
A MANSION IN DARKNESS:
Killer harmonies, killer progression.
You can visualize the house; a dark and creepy looking presence of darkness somehow illuminated against the background of the greater darkness of the night surrounding it.
Blacker than black.
The visuals of the shadows at the gate being alive.
The visuals of inside the mansion, the dust, the vermin.
Walking the halls with candlelight in the pitch black.
Can you fucking imagine!?
A house being “alive”!?
Ever seen the movie “This House Possessed”?
That was a movie about a house that was evil and alive! Kinda like the house in Abigail.
Only not nearly as metal.
Of course everything is fucking terrifying when you’re a kid; I’m sure looking back now, Abigail is far more terrifying than that “TV MOVIE” was (This House Possessed)…still; it was a creepy fucking movie.
Moving on…
The quickened pace of the music matches the quickened pace of the pulses of the young couple edging through the house armed only with candlelight and their wits.
And zero knowledge about the shadows that traversed the house, slithering from room to room.
It finally stopped in the bedroom as the couple fell asleep.
Eventually dawn arrived.
THE FAMILY GHOST:
(Ohhhh DAMN!!!) That opening riff I always thought was fucking sick!!
And That one CRAZY high “note” on the intro solo; HFS!!
That was always some kind of King Diamond Black Magic to me.
Could you imagine waking up with a fire going and freezing your ass off while you’re looking at a GHOST that came with the house, and then having to listen to the ghost try to calm you down!?
By taking you to a fucking crypt below the mansion!?
What in the name of Holy fuck is going on in this house!?
So they depart for the basement (Cellar) to see what the mystery is.
I also always liked how the music had “movements” to them; like you could feel the swing and the literal movement, as if reading text.
The tempo speeds up and suddenly the heart is racing again as you make your way down the slippery stairs to the crypt.
You could fall (remind me to tell you about the last bitch that fell here; hahahaha!).
WTF kind of secret is in the dark?
I recall the music video for this song that they played on MTV maybe twice got shortened.
There’s another part of the song that’s not in the video.
The 7th Day of July 1777:
Beautiful acoustic intro, as was standard on most metal, specifically thrash related releases in the 80’s; a’la Black Sabbath.
A beautiful offset to the insanity that follows: the actual story is told by the ghost to Jonathan.
Betrayal. Fuck that cheating cunt. Old School abortion; that’s what this song is about! (LOL!).
The Count was NOT fucking around.
It’s so odd that it goes into such a great melodious, almost “happy” solo following the vivid description of what just transpired earlier, what with the stairs and the fire and such.
You know how obsession can work.
That just SOUNDS like insanity! King and the band always structured the movements to really give you almost like a “scene” change, very theatrical.
OMENS:
There’s something to be said about this song.
You can imagine when you start to see things that don’t add up or leave you with an unsettling feeling that it could be an omen of something worse to come
And every single one of the omens referenced in the song were absolutely creepy as fuck!
THE POSSESSION:
Can you imagine watching someone grow pregnantly by the hour!? Yeah, THIS was 9! (WTF!?).
Okay, at this point, Miram is gone! Abigail has now taken over and he knew it and he knew those Horsemen were serious.
Can you imagine being eaten alive from the inside by some evil demon baby?
ABIGAIL:
Just the intro is creepy by itself.
That weird middle easterny sounding thing; and of course what it goes into is badass.
Can you imagine your spouse being completely dominated and possessed by some other evil unknown force?
And then watching her laugh in your fucking face when you tell her you’re going to get a priest!?
Imagine the horror!
And then imagine hearing one last message where she breaks through to tell him “that’s it; I’m out.
Kill me now!”. You can’t fathom how alone you’d feel in that moment.
BLACK HORSEMEN:
Another staple of 80’s thrash metal; the acoustic/clean intro.
Again; beautifully orchestrated and executed.
Such a contrast to the message to come.
Could you imagine your undead spouse wanting you?
And then she attempts to kill you and you’re not even pregnant? And now Abigail has taken complete control of the mansion!
Flashback to the arrival in the rain not so long ago, with so much promise and so much hope; now all a dead, haunted memory.
Oh how the screams must sound in July…The Black Horsemen race to the Mansion to help as was decreed long ago by the Count.
There’s a reason for the term “unspeakable”. Could you ceremoniously murder an evil murderous baby? King was (and still is) always such a master story teller; musically and lyrically.
I want to make Abigail: the Movie…assuming it hasn’t already beeon done or influenced in some way that I’m not aware of.
*****BONUS*****
SHRINE:
Shrine was part of the re-release.
It wasn’t part of the original “Abigail” release because it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the story.
But it does have a very visual vibe to me; King’s music just has that effect; it has a weirdly haunting visual kinda vibe.
You can REALLY see what he’s singing!
NOTES:
(00:00): A word from Selma May and an importanter word from Archie/Welcome to our special guest host (The Eric Mixon)/King Diamond “Abigail”: Like Judas Priest, but…Wait, WHAT?/an #eviler sounding Bee Gees/An outside perspective on King Diamond/ Mercyful Fate
(07:22): Abigail: The First of its kind (for King)/The INCREDIBLE album cover!!!Kudos, Commendments AND Condiments/ #sidenotesunday/tape collections as a gauge of someone’s greatness as a person/Matt’s Metal Dream: Abigail-The MOVIE(!?)
(10:44): Su Nioj/Released Jun 15, 1987/#snuffcountry Dec-1986 to Feb-1987/Plot: Present Day (1845), Flashback (1777)/Useful analogies and comparisons/Billboard.com: 7 things you didn’t know about ‘Abigail’/#titular/#horrormetal/Alice Cooper and Concept Albums? (Looks like YES: Welcome to my Nightmare and From the Inside)/the “editing” process in the olden days/#6: OH DAMN! #familyghost/Have you seen the video for ‘The Family Ghost’? /***SURPRISE: King Diamond and Pantera***/#kingtera
(20:20): The Tracks: Funeral (From the End, to the Beginning)/Arrival (Seven?)/A Mansion in Darkness/The Family Ghost (#thatnote)/” Oh Damn!” (A creepy as fuck blessing in disguise)
(32:23): King Diamond’s last show in Atlanta/The 7 th Day of July 1777 (or 1977, or whatever…)/the “movement” in the music relative to the story
(39:30): Omens/The OLD Masquerade (in Atlanta) #blessed/Eric’s tangentionally related show story re: Limp Bizkit and Faith No More/The Masquerade Experience/The Possession/The Middle of the Middle/*Abigail, Black Horsemen and Shrine*/Give us YOUR feedback:
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