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| | The Call of the Wretched Sea | | | Music Artist : | | Ahab | | Music Style : | | Death Metal | | Record Label : | | Napalm | | Release Date : | | 2006-10-10 | | Store Price : | | $16.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $16.98 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Below The Sun
2. The Pacific
3. Old Thunder
4. Of the monstrous Pictures of Whales
5. The Sermon
6. The Hunt
7. Ahab's Oath
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Nice
Submitted on: 2009-08-31 |
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| I wont waste your time with a long explanation...this album is REALLY good...go buy it immediately. |
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Burial at sea
Submitted on: 2009-08-15 |
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I've listened to precious little funeral doom in my day, so perhaps this review will be of little use to those in the know. I'd have a helluva time comparing it to anything else or explaining if it meets conventions, so I won't much try. That said, I can say that, as someone with a vague interest in the genre, I found Ahab to be a damn impressive starting point. Indeed, it's everything I'd hoped the genre might be. "The Call of the Wretched Sea" is simply enormous, a behemoth (or should I say leviathan?) of reverberating, endless chords, minimalist drumwork and inhumanly deep growls. Most, no doubt, will find it too slow and repetitive, but this is a criticism of the genre, not the band. Indeed, though the basics may seem to limit the sound, Ahab display impressive versatility, adding just enough variety into this gargantuan album to keep it fresh all though the nearly 67+ minutes.
Unsurprisingly, these German lads trade in sea themes, and specifically Melville's oft-impenetrable epic "Moby Dick." Though hardly the first or last metal album to consider such themes, they are particularly appropriate in this grandiose aural setting. Though you will need to consult the lyric sheet to uncover the specific references, the epic sadness of "The Call of the Wretched Sea" matches the stark solemnity of the novel's narrative. (Melville's informative asides about countless other subjects are, unsurprisingly, absent.) This is best illustrated in the epic (they're all epic, actually) opener "Below the Sun," which divides the pounding power chords and atonal lead lines with atmospheric minimalism and a repeated, wistful melody that highlights the track. The album, again, contains lengthy epics exclusively (apart from one interlude), but each manages a distinct flavor. "Old Thunder" is a relatively sprightly beast, alternating the thudding of a single chord with some surging, subterranean rumblings, while the closer "Ahab's Oath" emphasizes sparse and surprisingly old-fashioned sounding synths over the oft-minimalistic guitarwork. Conversely "The Hunt" is the most purely melodic work composition, repeating a few simple, eerie melodies over the controlled maelstrom of the core instrumentation. While the album could perhaps stand to be slightly trimmed ("The Pacific" drags slightly, while the sample-oriented middle of "The Sermon" doesn't add a lot), the epic lengths are needed for the overall effect, and the tracks consistently generate a sort of dramatic tension. As each movement winds down the listener can't help but anxiously anticipate the next movement or fragment of melody, and it almost invariably arrives at just the right moment to have the fullest impact. More simply put, Ahab writes songs as aural narratives, and they almost always manage to build and resolve these movements with skill, creating unified wholes instead of formless and wandering compositions.
All in all, "The Call of the Wretched Sea" is an impressively fully-formed debut. Funeral doom could no doubt degenerate into a mindless bore in uncontrolled hands, but Ahab consistently manipulates the listener with ease. "The Divinity of Oceans" seems to be, if not equal to this, at least quite impressive, and Ahab appear to have a bright future ahead of them. (I've only heard TDoO once, so I can't fully judge it yet. It's good, definitely.) To rehash an old cliché, I don't know funeral doom, but I know what I like. And this I like. Check it out.
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 All for naught-ical.
Submitted on: 2009-06-13 |
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With all this talk of nautical metal and stories of the sea, I became interested in finding out what this band was all about. One of the first tracks I heard did sound a bit compelling...and it started to unwind darkly in a somewhat impressive fashion. There came ominous,deep,and beautiful chanting vocals into the mix; they set a great stage for what others were describing about this music..... I felt, for a moment, that I was stranded in the middle of a dark and unpredictable ocean..the combination of subtle and heavy sounds made me really start to drift away....
Then, unfortunately, it all ended rather fast. I spent my time hoping that the poor-quality sounding death grunts would end soon, and the bruising, awesome chant-vocals would return far more than they did. What would have been a totally unique and powerful journey, ended up being a rather ridiculous marathon of what sounded like Yoda's, cross-eyed and screaming, constipation. I don't mean to be crude here, but this is the image one can honestly receive while hearing "The Call of the Wretched Sea" in all too many of it's "movements."
It seems so totally unnecessary that they used the "defe-vocals" (death grunts), because they had the perfect instrument to convey dark feelings already in the unusual and very heavy chant-vocals. Trading to mostly defe-vocals, they took what sounded very original, and tossed it into the dollar store bin with every other death/doom band that employs such a style.
Seems a bit of effort was put into this album, it's just unfortunate that another potential piece of art was all for naught. If they make changes on the next, I'll almost certainly give it more than a few listens......
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Intense,Brooding,EErie....Beautiful
Submitted on: 2009-03-23 |
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| This has to be one of the best cds that I've come across period and that's saying a lot.I really am fairly cautious when it comes to theme/concept albums, but this one, just like Summoning does with Tolkien themes, is one that takes it to that extra level that it surpasses any description other than " EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF!!!!". Heavy, crushing sounds where the riffs feel as though they ARE the waves of the "wretched sea" coming down on you. If obsession and drowning really felt this good I'd do myself in within an instant. This is to be experienced for sure!!!! |
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WOW... This is an AMAZING album
Submitted on: 2008-11-05 |
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This album is HEAVY! One of the best metal releases ever. In an era where all metal has become fast, boring and generic it's terrific to hear something like this. The vocal styling used on this album isn't something I usually like but it really works great on here. At times the vocals are almost like another instrument. My only real gripe about this release would be that the bass guitar is too low in the mix.
Overall this is a must-have. Heavy, Heavy, Heavy Metal! Brutal and bone-crushing. |
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