There are vocalists who scream, sing, and grunt. And then there’s Daniel Droste.
The Ahab frontman and mainstay has, since 2004, imbued into doom metal a unique, untouchable style of singing which surpasses anything else heard to date. It’s matter-of-fact, informative and in a class of its own.
I’ve always queried the ‘Funeral’ tag given to German behemoth Ahab. Their undeniably progressive, occasionally melodic leanings give their pummelling crawl a contradictory lightness. Fourth album The Boats of the Glen Carrig (Napalm Records) is a concept based on William Hope Hodgson’s novel of the same name, and is arguably the band’s most expansive project to date as well as boasting some staggering cover art.
Not known for an unadventurous nature, the outfit’s ambition here is nevertheless superseded by the accomplished sound, a crystal-clear production adding beef to the bones and an earthshaking resonance to the foreboding aura. Dainty musings give crushing opener ‘The Isle’ an air of mystery, decorated with Daniel Droste’s unearthly, growling scours which set the tone for this latest chapter of nautical terror. The sparing lead tones of ‘The Things That Made Search’ are evocative and emit the slight Gaelic tone expected of the scene; the subsequent mournful outset granted heartfelt emotion by Droste’s intonations and some subtle yet stirring harmonies. Harsher sounds are never far away of course, and a coruscating roar suddenly rips the ears apart, riffs surreptitiously squeezing the soul through indigent rhythms, veering movements and Cornelius Althammer’s fascinating drum patterns.
Guitar segues from lead to rhythm during ‘Like Red Foam (The Great Storm)’ are seamless, highlighting the organic, almost telepathic interaction between the instruments. Titanic explosions, meanwhile, wake the Earth’s core as they tear at the psyche, with lead edges softening the blows and solos adding an Eastern mystique. That Funereal bent does appear throughout, and introduces standout track ‘The Weedmen’: Droste’s hostile character the evil cousin of Tolkein’s Treebeard. The ‘cleans’ decorating the quiet section, however, soar into the sky and demonstrate the vocalist’s immense talent; while the superior solo work interrupts suitably morose, versatile riffs in arguably the most powerful yet emotional track Ahab has thus far recorded. The varying segments allow the fifteen minutes to fair breeze by, and indeed this is a valid statement for the album as a whole: this five-track version climaxing at just under an hour, yet the depth and meaning leaves the listener feeling every second.
The delicate, Torch-like first movement of closer ‘To Mourn Job’ explodes into a Doom-laden groove carrying more timber than a jiving pachyderm. Hushed, stroked chords open the second half of the track in wistful fashion, as if transporting the biblical character’s corpse to the crashing, swelling finale: mammoth riffs and rhythms that grind bone with slow yet dextrous power.
With more direction, cohesion and harnessed might than ever before, Ahab has produced its greatest, most accessible and soul-affecting opus.
8.5/10
PAUL QUINN
Ahab. Photo courtesy or Napalm Records.
German Doom-meisters Ahab, quite appropriately considering their chosen method of musical communication have, like the slow roiling tide, gradually and steadily progressed, increasing not just in terms of exposure but also musically, with each release improving their status (“It’s because we’ve been around 11 years, so people heard our name often enough to think “ah, they’re still around, now I’ll listen finally!””) and growing a stoic brand of progressive doom metal, all linked by the retelling of literary tales with marine and disturbing themes.
Having covered Edgar Allan Poe, and ridden the leviathan of Moby Dick on previous albums, this fourth time around matters took on a more obscure twist, as The Boats of Glen Carrig (Napalm) takes its tales from the William Hope Hodgson book of the same name. “I don’t know if he and HP Lovecraft were friends but they knew each other”, begins guitarist and lyricist Christian Hector, a quietly spoken man with a very likeable self-deprecating and calm manner.
“What I like about the book is there are some real strange creatures, slug-like man-eating monsters, and kraken type monsters. It is psychedelic, but on a different level, Hodgson wrote about social differences between the crew members, and how this was gone when they were in this special situation. I found this really interesting, especially because this also fits the time nowadays where, for some people, it’s more important who you are, what colour you are, and we dislike that, so it was a good point for us too.”
Asking for directions in a second language is difficult enough, though I’m sure I could find the beach in La Rochelle thanks to secondary school’s legendary Tricolor text books (all coming with standard dick and balls drawn on everyone’s foreheads), let alone retelling an epic, dark tale, a feat Hector has managed with some success. There is a pleasing Olde poetic feel to lyric, reminiscent of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “There’s nothing more embarrassing than to write something poetic in a foreign language that sounds cheesy!” he laughs modestly. “My problem is not being a native speaker, so I never know if my lyrics are cheesy or if they are appropriate. I’ll take some expressions from the book to get the right vibe of it, and when I’m finished I send them to a native speaker to look over them.
“There were some changes, some weird expressions that were German, but normally I try to capture the vibe of the book, and the story of the book but also try to get something into it that are emotions I have in mind, or something that happened to me and was important to me, but in a way that it still fits the book so you don’t read something into it that isn’t there.”
Ahab. Photo courtesy of Napalm Records.
If the concept is impressive, it’s swamped (pun intended) by the remorseless churning atmospheric riffs and doomy passages that show why Ahab are held as genre-leaders; at one point during ‘The Weedmen’ the song feels like it’s physically restraining an ancient giant moss-beast that wants to escape! “The Weedmen was actually a pain in the ass in the studio!” chuckles Hector, ruefully.
“Because Cornelius (Althammer – drums) and Stephen (Wandernoth – bass) played live together when we recorded, and they were so fucking laid back, and they play behind the click, you have to concentrate on what they’re doing, and this click is in your ear and you’re thinking “Ah, now they are coming!” and “Ah, I’m too late!”
“So this song is a pain in the ass to play that slow, cos if you miss a millisecond, you hear it in doom!”
Taking everything into consideration, with it’s atmospheric, doom metal combining seamlessly with a progressive lilt, is this the defining Ahab album?
“To some extent, yes. The Giant was, we feel a little over-produced, so we tried to have a bit more of an authentic harsh sound, mixed with warmer clean sounds. Some of the songs, too, have things that are new to us; it’s not prog rock, but there’s plenty of progressive music in there and ‘Red Foam’ is, for us, something different; a really fast song.
“The Giant shouldn’t sound like The Divinity of Ocea\yhhhns (both Napalm) and The Boats of Glen Carrig shouldn’t sound like The Giant, because they’re different books, a different feeling”, confirms the guitarist. “If you create these things, you should at least sound in your small universe a bit different. It’s not scientific, more like using what you’ve got in your feelings and the feelings from the book and trying to capture that.”
Adding to the development of the Ahab sound and the Glen Carrig atmosphere is a stand-out performance from vocalist Daniel Droste, whose turn is really impressive; varying sweet cleans, scary growls, atmospheric gravels, and some almost Norwegian, …In The Woods styled alternative cleans…
“We didn’t hear any of the vocals before recording, because like on The Giant Daniel did everything in the studio, so when it was finished we were really impressed. Now, he sounds quite different to the last albums, there’s a bit more 80’s in the clean vocals, and his shouting stuff is more like Gorefest style, which is great. I’m a bit of a vocal fetishist. If the vocals don’t work, I don’t like the whole album. He has a special voice for it. He really did something really good.
“This album probably sums up our whole career and these songs actually sound like they are the bridge between our first album and The Giant.”
The Boats of Glen Carrig is released via Napalm Records on August 28. You can pre-order it here
Ahab in Europe 2015
Oct 29: Elfer Club – Frankfurt (DE)
Oct 31: Bambi Galore – Hamburg (DE)
Nov 6: Club Cann – Stuttgart (DE)
Nov 11: Schwimmbad Club- Heldelberg (DE)
Dec 12: Eindhoven Metal Meeting- Eindhoven (NL)
STEVE TOVEY