AHAB, the German funeral doom metal band featuring MIDNATTSOL guitarist Daniel Droste on guitar/vocals and ex-MIDNATTSOL guitarist Christian Hector, is mixing its sophomore album at Klangschmiede Studio E for a late spring/early summer release via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2006's "The Call of the Wretched Sea" will contain seven songs and will be based on the wreckage of the Essex.
The track listing is as follows:
01. Yet Another Raft of The Medusa (Pollard's Weakness)
02. The Divinity Of Oceans
03. O Father Sea
04. Redemption Lost
05. Tombstone Carousal
06. Gnawing Bones (Coffin's Lot)
07. Nickerson's Theme
According to the band, the guitar parts for AHAB's new album, which were mostly written by Daniel Droste this time, are "a bit more complex, yet in a funeral doom and death doom style." Hector says, "It sounds a bit like a mixture of the 'good ole' AHAB style mixed with very atmospheric tunes. So the description of AHAB as it's posted on Doom-Metal.com as a 'riffing funeral doom band' still is valid. You may say there are riffs, that sound a bit like Devin Townsend going funeral doom, CARCASS in slomo or MORBID ANGEL going beyond the slowness of 'Blessed Are The Sick'. Still to some extent the influence of our colleague of Tyranny can still be heard in some few riffs. So most of the music stays the same as you know it, although there are some hints to postcore and classical doom as well. It also maybe said, the songs are much more epic and vast. I think the new riffs fit perfectly to tell the story of the wreckage of the Essex! So Daniel made it quite easy for me to fit the lyrics to the music!"
AHAB is named after Captain Ahab, a character in the novel "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. Along with its name, the band also draws thematic and lyrical inspiration from "Moby Dick" — some songs even feature direct quotations from the book.
AHAB is:
Daniel Droste: Guitar, Voices, Synths
Christian Hector: Guitar
Stephan Wandernoth: Bass
Cornelius Althammer: Drums
Showing posts with label Ahab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ahab. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Album Of The Day-Ahab-"The Call Of The Wretched Sea" (2006)
The Album Of The Day Is "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" by Ahab.
Review:
With their ambitious debut album, 2006's The Call of the Wretched Sea, Germany's tellingly named Ahab embark on a treacherous voyage to reinterpret Herman Melville's immortal whaling adventure, Moby Dick, through the suitably equivalent sonic leviathan of funereal doom metal -- or, as they are eager to dub it themselves: "Nautik Funeral Doom." Of course one need only look back a couple of years to find Mastodon's more oblique treatise on the very same literary subject, via their own Leviathan album; but what Ahab lacks in outright originality, they handily make up for with The Call of the Wretched Sea's meticulously assembled husks of words and music (plus, in terms of pure heaviness, this leviathan makes Mastodon's sound as light as a sparrow!). The titanic tandem of "Below the Sun" and "The Pacific" steers listeners away from port, and casts them directly down into the darkest ocean abyss with slothful, somber synthesizer melodies, cataclysmic downtuned guitar waves, and echoing percussive thunders. These provide a formidable frame for lyrics frequently adapted directly from Melville's writings and delivered in an impossibly deep, guttural vocal style that sounds as though it was performed by Moby Dick himself -- har-har! But it's surprisingly clean-droned baritones substituting these rumblings on "Old Thunder," which features an unusually uplifting, orchestrated central portion, bridged by an atmospheric interlude called "Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales" to yet another colossal epic in "The Sermon," itself boasting a shimmering central passage of near-silent melodic ripples that temporarily interrupt the album's prevalent, monolithic guitar grinds. The Call of the Wretched Sea subsequently achieves a dual climax via "The Hunt" and "Ahab's Oath," both of which are marked by keening, rather infectious melodies, but which still leave the listener feeling as if crushed under the pressure untold fathoms. What's more, their words reveal that Ahab's musical retelling of Moby Dick is only just begun here, with a lot more story from the novel's original argument yet to be set to music on ensuing albums. If and when that comes to pass, Ahab will have their work cut out for them, because The Call of the Wretched Sea has set the funereal doom bar especially high -- or low, as it were. (Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide)
Track Listing:
01. Below the Sun - 11:45
02. The Pacific - 10:07
03. Old Thunder - 9:54
04. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales - 1:52
05. The Sermon - 12:36
06. The Hunt - 11:13
07. Ahab's Oath - 10:11
Listen
MySpace
Official Website
Order "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" here
.
Review:
With their ambitious debut album, 2006's The Call of the Wretched Sea, Germany's tellingly named Ahab embark on a treacherous voyage to reinterpret Herman Melville's immortal whaling adventure, Moby Dick, through the suitably equivalent sonic leviathan of funereal doom metal -- or, as they are eager to dub it themselves: "Nautik Funeral Doom." Of course one need only look back a couple of years to find Mastodon's more oblique treatise on the very same literary subject, via their own Leviathan album; but what Ahab lacks in outright originality, they handily make up for with The Call of the Wretched Sea's meticulously assembled husks of words and music (plus, in terms of pure heaviness, this leviathan makes Mastodon's sound as light as a sparrow!). The titanic tandem of "Below the Sun" and "The Pacific" steers listeners away from port, and casts them directly down into the darkest ocean abyss with slothful, somber synthesizer melodies, cataclysmic downtuned guitar waves, and echoing percussive thunders. These provide a formidable frame for lyrics frequently adapted directly from Melville's writings and delivered in an impossibly deep, guttural vocal style that sounds as though it was performed by Moby Dick himself -- har-har! But it's surprisingly clean-droned baritones substituting these rumblings on "Old Thunder," which features an unusually uplifting, orchestrated central portion, bridged by an atmospheric interlude called "Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales" to yet another colossal epic in "The Sermon," itself boasting a shimmering central passage of near-silent melodic ripples that temporarily interrupt the album's prevalent, monolithic guitar grinds. The Call of the Wretched Sea subsequently achieves a dual climax via "The Hunt" and "Ahab's Oath," both of which are marked by keening, rather infectious melodies, but which still leave the listener feeling as if crushed under the pressure untold fathoms. What's more, their words reveal that Ahab's musical retelling of Moby Dick is only just begun here, with a lot more story from the novel's original argument yet to be set to music on ensuing albums. If and when that comes to pass, Ahab will have their work cut out for them, because The Call of the Wretched Sea has set the funereal doom bar especially high -- or low, as it were. (Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide)
Track Listing:
01. Below the Sun - 11:45
02. The Pacific - 10:07
03. Old Thunder - 9:54
04. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales - 1:52
05. The Sermon - 12:36
06. The Hunt - 11:13
07. Ahab's Oath - 10:11
Listen
MySpace
Official Website
Order "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" here
.
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