Band:	Ahab
Album:	The Call Of The Wretched Sea
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	2006
Guest review by:	Doc G.

01. Below The Sun
02. The Pacific
03. Old Thunder
04. Of The Monstrous Pictures Of Whales
05. The Sermon
06. The Hunt
07. Ahab's Oath

Have you ever sat in your back yard at night staring up at the stars when you suddenly come to the unfortunate realization that your life is completely pitiful and insignificant? What? You haven't? Then I assume you have never heard this album!

Funeral doom... that's that really boring genre with no face-melting solos and the guitars going too slow, right? Wrong! The name of the game here is atmosphere, and never have I heard a band set up such a perfect atmosphere. Being a man who generally appreciates ferocious riffs above anything else, the word "atmospheric" generally doesn't attract me to an album, but after hearing "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" my eyes were opened to a whole new power some music can have. The tranquil, yet ominous, grandiose guitar leads, interspersed with the occasional heavy chugging "heave-ho!" type rhythm based sections would have made a great instrumental album on its own, but it doesn't end there. Laced in between the fantastic guitar work is some grotesque (albeit fairly unremarkable) growls, and some Gregorian-chant like clean vocals, that both really do justice to the type of scenes they are trying to portray. Now lets not forget the drumming! Though it usually plays its part effectively, yet fairly predictably - slow and thundering, occasionally you'll hear some great speed put into the drum work, while managing to maintain the tempo at a crushingly depressing crawl.

What could possibly be the most impressive aspect of the album is the production. So often it's easy to completely overlook the detailed work of production and mixing in an album, but with "The Call Of The Wretched Sea" its something that is almost impossible to ignore. Great care was obviously taken in having certain riffs faded to give the songs the ocean-like depth they possess, also having certain instruments come forward at certain points, as well as laying vocals behind the music at a lot of points, instead of just lying the vocals flat on top as so many bands do. This album wouldn't be half of what it is without this jaw dropping production.

I honestly couldn't say anything bad about this album that wouldn't be a judgment of the genre itself. Let's face it, this album is just downright depressing, but even if that isn't your thing, at least tip your hat out of respect to the musicians for being able to so effectively put forth this type of atmosphere. If your musical tastes are generally based off of the angriest, fastest riffs, Ahab (and doom metal in general) will probably just bore you. If you're open to being blown away by abilities other than the speed of a solo, then I highly recommend this. All in all a great eye opener, for people such as myself, who are still just beginning to scratch the surface of the world of doom metal.