Ahab
The Call of the Wretched Sea

THE REVIEW

Yes, it's not exactly the right time for an album of this kind, even if...

The Call of the Wretched Sea is a gray cloud that travels through maritime areas during vacation periods. Murphy's law certifies that at least for one day of your vacation, the sky and the sea will look just like the cover, and that will be the right day. I am sure your curses will sound very similar to the singer's voice, which is a brutal death metal growl adapted to funeral doom metal. "The sucking of an old sink," just to be clear, although there are glimpses of clean vocals.

Where I'm from, The Call of the Wretched Sea means going to challenge the stormy sea, the one with a red flag with a skull inside. But without a surfing culture, it means risking one's life by challenging the sea's power manifested in overwhelming waves, diving under the crest, hoping to pierce them perpendicularly (otherwise, you drown), seeking a head-on clash with the current. Don't do it if you're not an experienced swimmer and don't do it alone. Just don't do it. It's easy to drown, and it's not worth it for a stupid adrenaline rush.

Aside from the nonsense.

The album is one of the top not 50 not 20 not 10 but 5 doom albums of all time!

Nothing is trivial. Despite the genre having almost all (or almost) its cards on the table, this work is a succession of brilliant ideas. The structure of the songs is unpredictable, there's the unexpected drumming, and there's the moody riff (especially in the gigantic opener "Below the Sun"), where there's a slight hint of banality, everything is well compensated by the quality of the sound (as in "The Hunt"). The themes range from ocean worship to references to the famous novel "Moby Dick." So if it's not quite a summer album, it's at least... Maritime!

In case Murphy fails, it can also be a splendid oasis (via headphones) when the mouth of the neighboring beach umbrella starts to sound a bit too much like Pantera's drums.

...Hemingway would have liked it.

('06, Germany, Relapse or Napalm Records)

[unnecessary information, but Germany dominates my listening]