''The Call of the Wretched Sea'' is the debut album by the German funeral doom band Ahab. It was released in October 2006.

History

''The Call of the Wretched Sea'' is Ahab's first studio album. It was the band's first recording since their first two demos. To record the album, they recruited Corny Althammer as session

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mastering and mixing tasks were carried out by Stephan Adolph. It was released on 10 October 2006 through

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach and Vintersorg. The label later ...

. Double-LP versions of this album were released through

Deviant Records Deviant Records was a London-based electronic music record label founded by publisher and music producer Rob Deacon in 1994. They published bands such as Pentatonik, Node (Flood, Ed Buller, Mel Wesson, Dave Bessell), Schematix, The Orb, Humate, ...

; there were 100 copies in green vinyl, 100 copies in red vinyl, and 300 copies in black vinyl.

Music

The album has been treated as an example of what

funeral doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

represents. It features slow

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

melodies, downtuned guitars, echoing percussion, and deep and guttural vocals. Chants and choral vocal parts are also arranged at various points during the album. The track "Old Thunder" features an orchestrated central portion as well as clean-droned

baritones A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

substituting the guttural vocals in some sections. "The Sermon" has a central passage of near-silent melodic ripples that temporarily interrupt the album's guitar passages. ''The Call of the Wretched Sea'' is a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

which attempts to reinterpret

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...

's 1851 novel '' Moby-Dick''. Some of its lyrics have been adapted directly from Melville's writings. The album tries to represent the feelings of foreboding as told through the story of the book's main character, the despotic Captain Ahab.

Critical reception

The album was given a 4 of 5 by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

and an 8 of 10 by

blabbermouth.net Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was launched in March 2001; in October ...

. It has been considered a fine example of the style, but not appealing enough to people who don't appreciate

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

, specifically funeral doom. Corny Althammer's drumming was specially praised.

Track listing

Music by Ahab. Lyrics written by

except "The Pacific" by

Daniel Droste Daniel Droste (born 2 April 1980 in Mosbach) is a German musician. He was a member of Midnattsol between 2003 and 2010, and founded Ahab in 2006. Career Droste was the guitarist of the gothic/folk metal band Midnattsol and is the vocalist, ...

and Melville; "Old Thunder" by Christian Hector; and "The Hunt" by Christian Hoffarth.Interview with Chris R. Hector: June 30, 2008
/ref>

Personnel

;Ahab *

– vocals, guitar * Christian Hector – guitar, layout design * Stephan Adolph – bass, guitar, vocals, production, engineering, mastering, mixing * Cornelius Althammer – drums ;Other * Caroline Traitler – photography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Call Of The Wretched Sea, The 2006 debut albums Ahab (band) albums Concept albums Music based on novels Napalm Records albums Works based on Moby-Dick