Ahab

The Call Of The Wretched Sea

Written by: PP on 29/09/2006 16:56:41

You can virtually have any combination of opinions when it comes to 'funeral' doom metal. Some love its painfully slow pace and its even slower chord progression that immediately paints your mind full of grey imagery. Others, like myself, rarely find the ultra-depressive rhythms and compositions listenable, though occasionally bands like Saturnus pop up and show that beauty too can be found in the genre. German Ahab, which consists of ex-Midnattsol members, combines the beauty of bands like Saturnus and a repressive, black as night sound together on their newest album "The Call Of The Wretched Sea", falling effectively in between the two opinions.

Ever seen the movie The Perfect Storm? Remember the parts where the hurricane-weather raises sky-scraper tall waves? If there was to be a perfect soundtrack to describe those moments, then "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" would be it. "The Pacific" immediately brushes scenery of a colossal grey storm into mind, with vocalist Daniel Droste's deep roars sounding distinctly like you'd imagine Zeus, The God Of Thunder to sound like when he is hoisting the immense waves and throwing lightnings at the innocent. Rarely is a band able to elicit such vivid scenery into mind as on the aforementioned track. "Old Thunder" works as the perfect calm-before-the-storm song with an extended harmonious introduction, before it all settles back to the stormy mixture of deeply-distorted guitars and Daniel's frighteningly abysmal growls.

As such, "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" isn't bad at all. In fact, it's probably at the top-end of its genre for all I know. But when I start thinking about times when I would actually be ready to fall into as deep depression as required for Ahab's material, I can't think of many occasions. My house burning down with all my belongings and the insurance company refusing my claim, losing a winning lottery ticket, or a death of a close relative sound about right, but how often does that happen? Only for serious doom-metallers.

7

Download: The Pacific
For the fans of: Saturnus, Midnattsol
Listen: MP3 @ Website

Release date 02.10.2006
Napalm Records
Provided by Target ApS

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