About.com Rating
The Bottom Line
German doom investigational troupe exquisitely re-structures themselves on their second odyssey of nautical hell.
Pros
- Inventive grandeur fused amidst the trailing doom lines.
- Musicianship is superb.
- Puts you right in the heart of Ahab's condemned subject.
Cons
- You'll have to be a doom enthusiast in order to hang around for all 67 minutes.
Description
- Released September 29, 2009 by Napalm Records.
- Mastered by Markus Stock.
- Ahab's second CD.
Guide Review - Ahab - 'The Divinity Of Oceans'
Who else but Napalm Records would come up with the insanely-cooked tag “Funeral Nautic Doom Metal” to describe German doom artisans Ahab and their second album of mariner torment, The Divinity of Oceans?
Ahab’s arrival on the scene with their portly and excitable Moby Dick entreaty from 2006, The Call of the Wretched Sea indicated how strongly this specialized doom ensemble could write. Three years later, Ahab has immediately kicked up a buzz on the doom circuit with their lengthy yet poignant follow-up The Divinity of Oceans.
Though Candlemass might finish the year out as supreme doom rulers, no doubt Ahab are going to be right there in the running with their textured and punishing doom ode to another whale-afflicted sea dog, Captain George Pollard, Jr., commander of the Leviathan-pulverized Essex.
“Funeral” might very well be as appropriate a word to affix to The Divinity of Oceans as any just for the haunted opening reverie of “Yet Another Raft of the Medusa (Pollard’s Weakness),” which kicks into a loud din of abrasion immediately afterwards.
No minister presiding over this departed; instead we get the stomach-churning, lamentable pukes of Daniel Droste. Droste switches to a more depressive form of clean vocals, chanting as if in a hallucinatory fugue to match Ahab’s splendiferous guitars, which wallow remorsefully yet with unsettling candor.
Such is the motif of the simplistic-yet-complex The Divinity of Oceans. The script calls for doom, doom and more doom, so don’t be seeking out mid-tempo or thrash bottlerockets along the way. Ahab charts their own brackish course and plods without apology while keeping an ambivalent beauty twirling amidst their harsh residuals. Ahab knows when to turn up the volume, but somehow their booming capacity frequently simmers to serenity.
“O Father Sea” lashes the chains of lament with an interminable sequence of tonal abuse before merging a conscientious layer of melody into the opaque thickness of the track. “Redemption Lost” on the other hand, handles things in reverse, coming out instantly with a gorgeous swirl of near-hopefulness which hangs around for most of the ride before sculpting white noise atop a song you know will grow more despondent with each bar.
As most of the song lengths of The Divinity of Oceans tick into the ten minute expanse, one has to be settled into this thing and receptive to Ahab’s meticulousness to fully appreciate it. One of the album’s biggest payoffs, however, is “Gnawing Bones (Coffin’s Lot),” which is stunningly crafted with its imploring opening stanza which grows darker along the way. Before “Gnawing Bones” gets nearly insufferable from its inherent intensity, Ahab sets it to a whisper before pounding out an elegant succession of dirge marks to conclude.
No doubt Ahab is going to make the final cut of most doom hounds’ year-end finalists; the good news for them is The Divinity of Oceans is arty enough to quantify it as something well beyond doom.