Customer Reviews

Call of the Wretched Sea

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am truly not sure where to begin with this review. After being mentally mangled from a weekend of perpetual listening to this amazing album I have a sudden urge to take to the high seas and throw harpoons at sperm whales, even if it means my annihilation. Never has music so effectively and convincingly illustrated not only a story but also a feeling of elemental terror and the mysterious wrath of nature.

The Call of the Wretched Sea might as well be the official soundtrack of Melville's Moby Dick, a story that I was convinced to read after and while listening to this album. Illustrated with surreal precision is the dread of Ahab's suicide mission to destroy God, his insanity and hatred fueling pagan rituals to damn the souls of his crew with him, the whaling ships deployed into violently churning black seas that so effortlessly crush the breath out of men, the blinding sea salt and the gaping jaws of the white whale.

The story is weaved together by deep, thunderous soundscapes, slow melodic guitars on top of discordant, crushing, depressive rhythms and harsh, incomprehensible, bellowing, deep vocals which are implemented in such a way as to represent the inner thoughts of the mad Ahab and at times the dark, elemental side of nature, namely the guttural spoutings of Moby Dick. The vocals are used as an instrument rather than as narration, underlying every dreary moment of panic to intensify the mood of abyssal hopelessness that Ishmael must have felt on the madness hijacked Pequod. Perhaps the most ingenious use of vocals I have yet to encounter!

At some points during the album the oppressive Doom metal melodies are relieved by beautiful interludes interlaced with wind drowned out samples from Moby Dick (1965), Gregorian chanting, and experimental keyboard and guitar work. These little bits of reprieve contrast magically with the fatal sounding, crushing, mystifying rhythms which permeate the album.

This is easily the best record of 2006.

Before I get started on reviewing this album, I'd like to say first that I do not consider myself a doom metal connoisseur, or even a serious fan of the genre for that matter. I initially approached doom metal from the post rock side of things (Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, Tortoise, Pelican (which I guess is somewhere in between), etc.). Most of the metal I listen to tends to be blistering, balls-out shred. That being said, I decided to make Ahab my first foray into the somber, dreary world of Funeral Doom.

Most of the reviews I read for this album were glowing. However, as a new-comer to the genre, I was afraid that 'The Call of the Wretched Sea' would be little more than an hour of the same two dissonant chords played over and over on ridiculously down-tuned guitars, with some dude growling unintelligible stuff in the background - and I imagined that Funeral Doom fans would probably think that was the greatest thing since Fruit by the Foot: "Dude, did you hear that part at 41:16 on the first track when the guitarist plays a chord that is totally different from the other two? Awesome...".

When I finally got to listen to the album, my apprehensions melted away, and were immediately replaced with a fear of the cold, icy, depths of the sea and the human soul. From the moment the album begins, it is apparent that the peaceful ebb and flow will soon give way to tumultuous waves of despair and anguish. I thought there was a surprising amount of emotion and development on this album (just because I didn't know what to expect). The band lingers on passages long enough to build up tension, but don't bludgeon the listener to death with the same painfully repetitive patterns. The tracks are quite lengthy - but are effective in creating the colossal structures necessary to convey the concepts of an angry ocean and an angrier whale. There are some really nice atmospheric touches, too, such as the chanted parts.

Overall, this is an incredible album that manages to hold the listeners interest through each massive movement. Even if you aren't a fan of the genre, you may find 'The Call of the Wretched Sea' to be a very rewarding experience. I certainly have.

This is how the band itself defines its sound.
Funeral Doom is one of the least known metal genres and I thought that its making was almost a lost craft. Because Funeral Doom is very demanding, you can't save a song with a guitar solo. I thought the last great Funeral Doom recording was Skepticism's Farmakon. But this young band from Germany has created an outstanding CD, you only need to listen the first track "Below The Sun" to feel the sheer beauty and despair within their music.
This release was quite a surprise and it's highly recommended for anyone who likes this sombre but beautiful kind of music.

I work at a music store. I have heard tons of music this year. This gem is by far, the greatest thing i heard in all of 2006, out of all the music! it is like stepping in an enchanted, dark, bleak, sorrowful dream. It is something that will never become popular because only few can appreciate it, listen to it. It is meant to hide under all the murk that is popular metal. I can only describe it as they do, and that is Nautic Funeral Doom, a beautiful work of art with growls and riffs and soundscapes, and a wonderful concept.

Descriptors: Epic, subtle, primeval, melodic, bombastic, haunting, and of course, really, really, really heavy.

This Germanic quartet has managed to create a very expansive, harsh, yet simultaneously beautiful sound, which dovetails perfectly with the album's theme, which is a musical tribute to Herman Melville's "Moby Dick". A story of vengeance, obsession, and existential inquiry, which swirls about a half insane captain and his crew, as they hunt the white whale.

All but three of the songs take their lyrics from the poetic almost Shakespearean soliloquies that Melville penned in Moby Dick. "Of monstrous pictures of whales" is purely instrumental. "The Sermon" makes exquisite use of an extended conversational sample between Ahab and perhaps Ishmael or another deckhand. Two pieces have lyrics written by a band member and outside contributor, which are "good," but not nearly as beautiful as Melville's.

At any rate, it's usually impossible to decipher what Daniel Droste and Stephen Adolf are growling, but that's fine with me. Droste's voice has the timbre of gravely river bottom, which seems to act as yet another wonderful instrument that captures the power and darkness of Melville's novel. Droste and Adolf do partake in some ominous melodic chanting as well, which also works great for this album! There are also chorale samples that are used sporadically that bring about the same effect.

The the instrumentation places a heavy emphasis on simple, memorable, and beautiful melodies that are tastefully interspersed among heavy, droning, and dark walls of noise, or menacing synthesizers. The drumming is usually slow and plodding, occasionally making use of bells (maybe kettle bells?). All of these effects lend to a sound which is as vast as the Atlantic. Like the Atlantic, it is both beautiful and destructive; which, quite appropriately, is indicative of a whale of mythic proportions and a madman bent on revenge.

I highly recommend this album to people who might appreciate melodic, sludgy, and extremely powerful metal. In my experience, this album has tapped into the very soul of Melville's story by eloquently capturing the mystery, beauty, power, and chaos it conveys.

I have to admit that I don't really listen to very many artists from this genre. I simply happened upon this album and decided to give it a chance. Without exaggeration, this is one of my favorite metal albums.

What makes me keep coming back to this CD is that the songs simply force me to listen to them. Because of its extremely slow pace and bone-crushingly heavy guitars, Ahab makes its listeners take in this sonic beating. Through patient composition, the song unfold slowly, thereby drawing the listener into the dark depths. To listen to Ahab is to be in for the long haul, so to speak.

And this album is a refreshingly different take on atmosphere. The ambient sections (or whole songs in the case of the short track Of The Monstrous Pictures Of Whales) give the feeling of incredible depth and coldness. This album gives "heavy" a fuller meaning: the guitars are heavy in the normal sense, but the music evokes the crushing weight of the "wretched sea." Truly masterful.

It's not often I'll put forth the effort in writing a review, but after hearing this I had to express myself. This is funeral doom (it says so right on the case) at its best. Seldom will one find a piece of music so completely captivating and so enduring that you can do nothing but become lost in the waves of the wretched sea. For well over an hour you find yourself delving into the darkest corners of captain Ahab's twisted mind as he hunts the white whale. This is more than background music, it's a journey into madness and obsession. I simply can not do this CD justice with words alone. If you are a fan of Evoken, Shape of Despair, Mourning Beloveth, etc. then you must own this. Beyond five stars, this earns a place in time itself.

this is really a gem funeral doom masterpiece dark, mysterious, melancholic and powerful melodies full of pasion and fury. very recommend, dont past this magnificent overture.

This is easily one of the best releases of 2006 (number 2, actually) and an all-round stellar debut for this "Nautik" Funeral Doom band.

The cover might remind you of a much more well-known piece of music released a couple years ago, but this is by far better. In fact, despite the fact that the vocals are almost totally incomprehensible, this sounds like it is about Moby Dick, its like this should be a Moby Dick soundtrack. The music is extremely doomy and depressive, and monstrously heavy.

The guitars are distorted and massive, the vocals gutteral, the atmosphere bleak, and the clean guitar fantastically done, interwoven extremely well. Overall, this is a massive release, and an absolute must for Doom fans. One of my favorite Doom albums. In fact, I liked this so much it compelled me to go out and buy Moby Dick.

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.