Abigail - King Diamond

Released way back in 1987, King Diamond's 'Abigail' is a concept album based around numerology and possession by spirits, no less, played in the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) style. It comes across like a creepier, darker version of Iron Maiden, complete with rousing dynamic heavy metal riffs and some excellent melodic solos. Each song continues the album's narrative, which is a Hammer Horror style ghost-tale set in the 18th century complete with multiple characters each with their own lines. Both story and dialogue are voiced by vocalist King Diamond via a mix of rasped/growled narration and insanely high pitched, Bruce-Dickinson-with-hits-nuts-in-a-vice ...

Danish band King Diamond’s ‘Abigail’ is a staple of horror movie heavy metal, and is the most impressive of the former Mercyful Fate frontman’s ‘solo’ releases (aided in no small part by lead guitarist Andy LaRocque and the other musicians accompanying the King’s torturous multi-octave wails). These nine very cool songs tell the gothic ghost story of a house under a horrific curse, narrated in part by the ghost of Count La’Fey, who threw his pregnant wife down the stairs to kill her bastard daughter Abigail. But the stillborn corpse intends to wreak its revenge on the house’s occupiers forevermore, and the album begins, as King Diamond himself helpfully screeches in the ...