Intercourse & Lust

"Intercourse & Lust" is, first of all, the realm of an adrenaline-pumping rhythm and the absolutely wild forming of compositions. Mostly fast tremolo picking riffs dominate here, occasionally – only once during a whole song, like a short relaxation – you can hear a chord with long release.

The riffs grow from the thrash metal category mostly, so the canvases of compositions are drawn in about the same way that Nifelheim, Bestial Mockery or Sadistik Exekution work. However, riffs in the spirit of the classic Norwegian black metal school can be heard sometimes (for example, in the second song "Confound Eternal"), but, honestly speaking, they get lost in a bestial blast beat. Add here the nervous, guttural spluttering vocals, this guy really breathes fire and brimstone. And frequent solos are completely wild, just imagine, some kind of a mixture of Blasphemy and early Slayer. Pure chaos! However, there are exceptions here too: the fourth "Attack with Spell" and the seventh "Mephistopheles" contain very melodic and harmonious solos. For all that, most often any melody is out of the question – this is a real flurry of fury.

But wild thrash metal on one or two tremolo picking riffs is only one Abigail's guise, although, probably, the most important one. Dirty heavy metal, mid-tempo and "groovy", on the verge of punk, and as usual on one or two riffs – this is another way that Abigail present their musical ideals: the third "The Crown Bearer", the fourth "Attack with Spell" (sardonical rock'n'roll is roaring here!), the seventh "Mephistopheles" (very brutal, but not lacking in melody). Fortunately, wild ear-piercing vocals destroy punk, turning it into... hmm... Black Metal?

The most unusual song on the album is the fifth "Strength of Other World". It starts with the same adrenaline-pumping rhythm, but this time Hellhammer-like riffs sound. It's a wow! From 2:35 a sort of "Scandinavian" black metal riff rules, although, in a very short time, it unexpectedly gives way to an acoustic guitar fingerpicking. This is followed by a real mess: a mid-tempo riff almost in the vein of Black Sabbath in league with a chaotic solo, then some punk, then a couple of "Norwegian" riffs, one of which is even touching. This is the most sophisticated song, however, its parts are glued together without any elegance or considerable tact – it would be a real mixture of segmental chords, but by a perverted logic and because of dominant savagery, everything is perceived as a single whole, if it ought to have been so. This once again emphasizes the essence of the album: praise thrashing madness!

The last song, the ninth "Hail Yakuza", is just as wild and chaotic-sophisticated as "Strength of Other World", but everything is smoothed out here (like in the instrumental "Intercourse & Lust") by Japanese "exotics", i. e. by a sample from some Japanese movie of related theme. The composition is really protracted, and seems completely incomprehensible without understanding the long speech in Japanese. Well, it's kind of like a long sample in industrial or noise music, it's just that metal sounds here instead of any noise. Although there are some pretty interesting composer's findings here: again, a part of the rough fuzzed bass (like in "The Crown Bearer"), epic riffs to the accompaniment of guitar fingerpicking, and spiteful slow riffs in the spirit of Burzum.

Bonuses 10-14 are taken from the debut demo recorded back in 1992. For the most part, this is dirty aggressive black metal – with cavernous vocals. A few slow episodes testify to the influence of Samael (twelfth "Death of Life"). An unusual element on this demo recording is a melodic and mysterious solo in the fourteenth "Lucifer Sings". As for the "musical progress", it seems that over the past period (from "Demo 1" till "Intercourse & Lust") Abigail have become more restless and violent.

Wow. Abigail are probably Japan's finest Black Metal band in terms of aggressiveness and raw attitude. This is their first full length album and it is very catchy actually. The riffs are all very thrashy yet retain a BM feel to them. The production is very raw yet all instruments can be heard in the mix. The vocals are some of the most insane I've ever heard. They are very high pitched and raspy with no possibility of the listener being able to understand a single word without the lyric sheet.

The music for the most part is fast yet never gets into the territory of endless blast beats and "fast for the hell of it." The drums are well played with the right amount of blasts and double kick thrown in. The bass can be heard well at times, such as on "Attack With Spell." There is a guitar solo in almost ever song, solidifying their love of all things Motorhead and just old school metal in general. Hell, if you took out the vocals and blast beats you may think this WAS Motorhead. You can tell these guys had a lot of fun making this record and it really shows in the music they have crafted here. They even throw in some acoustic guitar on the wonderful "Mephistopheles."

The opening song, "A Witch Named Aspilcuetta," is probably the fastest on here. It also has some slightly distorted vocals in parts. Really though I think the vocals on the entire record may have a slight distortion and definately reverb thrown in. Makes it all sound more "evil" if you will. "Hail Yakuza" is another one that starts off very fast but this one then turns into a seven minute long tribute to the Japanese culture. It has clips mixed in with it of maybe samurai movies or something as another reviewer said. And we all know that this was a big part of ancient Japanese culture. The lyrics are all in english as well and they actually aren't very broken. Of course these guys first language is not english so there are a few occasions when some broken english creeps its way into the lyrics but hey, you can't understand the words anyway, so it doesn't really matter!

All in all this is just a very solid release from a great Japanese BM band. I recommend this to anyone who is into BM, Thrash, Speed, Black/Thrash and basically any extreme form of metal.

Abigail are one of Japan's main metal exports, and on this album, they show why. From start to finish, this album is pounding blackened thrash. The production is fucking raw and brutal, and helps add that little bit extra to this album.

In general, this album is a lot more black metal than thrash. All the vocals are a black metal scream/growl and there is hardly a thrash riff to be found in most of the songs. However, that does not take away from this album one bit and they do find space for some thrash excellence on tracks like "The Crown Bearer" and "Attack With Spell".

Overall, this album is excellent. Try and get your hands on it if you can.

The amounts of alcohol consumed during the production of "Intercourse and Lust" must of been extraordinary... indeed, Abigail sound like they know their way around a six pack and a stack of Motorhead records. This is 100%, raw as fuck, satanic (probably?), hellfucking grim speedmetal from Japan. Nothing technical or pretty, but if you dig bands like Venom, old school Bathory and Imp. Naz, Abigal will leave you in stitches. HAIL YAKUZA!

Pretty simple concept.. heavily distorted speed metal riffs + the most indicipherable black metal vocals. Since I have no idea what the lyrics are and the spoken word parts are all in Japanese, I'm assuming the lyrics are Japanese as well. Maybe broken English, (or "kamakaze" according to Metallucifer) like "Attack With Spell".

I actually prefer Abigial's slower, more traditional inspired songs like Attack With Spell and the most excellent Mephistoles.... really fun to listen to. Their faster numbers (Bonehunter, A Witch Named Spilucetta) all kick ass... basically this is a really cool album for modern black-thrash fans.