Progressive Doom Rock band The Abbey, featuring Natalie Koskinen (Shape of Despair), Jesse Heikkinen (Henget, Iterum Nata), Vesa Ranta (Sentenced, The Man-Eating Tree), and Janne Markus (The Main-Eating Tree) are now launching the vinyl edition of their debut album, Word of Sin. The LP is due on July 7, 2023 via Season of Mist.
To celebrate, the band is now sharing the live version of the song, “Old Ones,” which was filmed during The Abbey’s first ever gig in Kantakrouvi, Oulu, Finland on February 22, 2023.
The artwork for Word of Sin was created by Alexander Reisfar.
Word of Sin was recorded between April and November 2021 in several locations across Finland. Drums, bass and Markus’s guitars were tracked at Kratio Studio in Oulu by Kyösti Rautio. Rautio also served as co-producer and mixed the album, becoming the unofficial sixth member of The Abbey. Heikkinen recorded most of his vocals and guitars in his stepdaughter’s room, surrounded by My Little Ponies, Disney figurines, and a pile of esoteric literature.
Heikkinen comments:
The album was made purely for self-expressive reasons. My music is the channel where I can be as true and authentic as possible. It is also a somewhat safe way to explore and express the dark side of myself and the collective consciousness. Word of Sin may seem like a tremendously dark piece as a rock album, but it’s pretty lightweight for a doom metal album! The material proved so strong that it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be another side project. I think using the means of improvisation made the music sound more like its creator instead of it being forced to be this or that — and that seemed to work really well for us!”
Heikkinen and Koskinen didn’t know each other before the formation of The Abbey. Heikkinen met Koskinen for the first time when she tracked vocals at his home studio, but their partnership generated immediate results.
Koskinen shares:
Nowadays, I usually record my vocals at home, but in this case, as I had yet to meet Jesse in person, I wanted to record my parts at his place. It’s very important to see what kind of energy is between the musicians I’m going to work with in the long run. It turns out that we are a perfect match musically. Later on, I traveled to Oulu to meet the rest of the guys [Janne and Henri] and I must say that we had a very strong bond from the beginning. Sometimes things just happen even when you don’t plan them.
The creative process behind Word of Sin proved so fruitful that the members of The Abbey are already thinking about a follow-up.
