Ahab
The Divinity of Oceans

I have spent a lifetime wondering what I would feel when facing death. And now that I'm here, I have to say it... It's not a nice sensation.
It's a bit like an uncontrollable hallucinogenic trip, in fact. Here I am, in the middle of the sea, in the middle of pitch-darkness, surrounded by every form of aquatic carnivore that would love to feast on my bones. And I'm starving. I WOULD KILL for a piece of bread. But these guys here, on the raft, want the same. It's a struggle for life. We're not people. We're piles of meaningless existence. We're no longer men. We're like animals, except animals aren't as pathetic as we are.
Do you hear this distant, ancestral song? Do you hear it, my friend? It's down there. We're saved. Come on, stand up. Climb the mast. Take off your shirt. Shake it. Shout as loud as you can. You must scream until your tonsils drop into the sea. We're here... Come save us...
No... NO... NOOOOOO!!!! They're leaving! I can't take it anymore! I want to drink! I want to get out of this damn sea! GROOOOAAAR!

All lies. I'm not about to die. I'm not in the middle of the ocean at the mercy of sharks, jellyfish, waves, tsunamis, ghosts, Svervegia viruses, and other oddities. I'm comfortably sitting on any ordinary chair in a beautiful French city, writing a very ordinary review. But then why... eh... why?
That's the point.
Listening to this album is like dying. Only afterward, you are alive and well. And, most importantly, clear-headed.

“Yet Another Raft Of The Medusa (Pollard's Weakness)”. There's an enveloping guitar, dark but seductive notes. Then... oblivion. Black. Pitch. Water. Nothing else. Nothing to describe. The voice isn't growl, it's the Satan Fish of the Abyss claiming its meal. And the choruses aren't choruses. They are voices of the desperate trying to save their lives, knowing they can't, shouting, cursing, falling. And all this is... It's simply fantastic. It's human communication imprinted in the notes of a metal album. It's art.

“The Divinity Of Oceans”. Reminds me of something, from some other band. But no names, otherwise, there'll be a controversy. The beginning is violent, okay. But maybe "pure violence" comes later. When everything calms down, and the guitar becomes psychedelic. The voice becomes solemn. It's a ceremony in all respects. It's the mass in honor of the Ocean God. These unfortunate souls on the raft of the Medusa will be its sacrificial victims. The ending... is pure daze.

“O Father Sea”. Doom. Doom. Dooooooom. There’s not much else to say. Father Sea takes My Dying Bride, makes them apocalyptic, less gothic, and more imposing. More than listening to an album, it feels like hearing the guided tour of the church of Satan submerged in the Mariana Trench saying "and here on the right you can admire...". Admire what? It's all black, and you can't see a damn thing.

“Redemption Lost”. Oh dear. But what is this melodic opening? You're trying to be airy, huh? Well, you'll never succeed. You have sadness in your blood, like the DNA passed down from your mom and dad. Indeed, the whole album is decidedly more airy than the previous “The Call Of Wretched Sea”... But the melody is a "support" for sanctity, "solemnity," "funerality." It doesn't replace it. It's like the ship you see on the horizon. You think it’s your salvation, that it can bring you back to land, safe and sound. You'll still be able to kiss a girl and enjoy strawberries with cream!
And instead, the ship doesn’t even give you the slightest attention. And you end up gnawing the leg of the guy next to you because you're starving.
The end of this song? Its calm and relaxed pace, its ancestral choruses pouring into a riff where despair becomes palpable, making those few minutes dangerous for lack of air. That’s why it’s called "breathtaking."

“Tombstone Carousel” is experimental. They try to do something strange. Not that I like it that much, but let’s admit it, it’s a testament to their originality.

“Gnawing Bones” adjusts the shot. Solemn, slow, suffocating, then slow, oppressive, and then again slow, slow, and still SLOW. They are slowness made music, but it's not a boring slowness, it's a slowness that almost scares you, a slowness you fear, a "sacred" slowness, endless. It's a trip, it's a journey, it's a fall into oblivion, it's goodbye, the definitive farewell. And those guitars a bit like My Dying Bride when they try to play death metal, let's admit it, don't improve the situation at all. Not even a little bit. Because then when they indulge in the languid melodies of liquid guitars (like ocean water), well, the little light there was turns off, you fall back into oblivion. I'm sorry but... there's really nothing left.

“Nickerson’s Theme”. It's the end. In every sense of the word. Melody, supported, or rather, "recited" by the guitars, like a prayer, like a rosary beside the bed of a loved one, like the fear of hell. Only halfway through does the song pick up rhythm, become more sustained and catchy, more metallic, but it’s a pause to catch a bit of air because when the song closes, it’s fair to say, it’s as if the tomb closes on the limbs of the poor listener.

Evoken, Thergothon, Skepticism, Funeral, Mournful Congregation, Officium Triste, Worship, Shape Of Despair... The list of funeral bands is long. All fantastic bands. I adore them.
However. Let me say this madness.

STICAZZI.

If you want “the perfect manual on how to compose and record an innovative funeral doom metal album” you just need to get this album. Get it, then listen to it. Until death do you part (indeed). There are albums sadder and gloomier than this, that's for sure. But here it’s not about "sadness." It's about "death." The purest and simplest sensation of despair.
Just to give you a comparison, to make my ramblings more understandable, if Shape Of Despair puts you in the shoes of a depressed and suicidal person because their loved one has died, Ahab puts you in the shoes of a person who is simply desperate because they are about to die, and they are lucid enough to understand it. That is you, the listener.
Not only that: we speak of innovation. These guys use every pedal effect possible to give you the impression of being in open sea, and they succeed, among other things. And the drums, shall we discuss it? Sometimes it plays cymbal tricks that almost recall jazz, find me a drummer doing something similar in a genre like this...

The future of funeral doom metal is here. It's now. It's forever.

For centuries of centuries.

Amen.

(In case it wasn't clear, this is one of the masterpieces of funeral doom metal from anywhere and anytime. There must be a reason if at the end of the Wikipedia page under "funeral doom metal" there's an entire paragraph dedicated to them and this album in particular, damn it. Anyway, for the record, I’d buy it just for the cover, and if you don't know what it represents, you deserve a nice big GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT etc. from Uncle Victor).

P.S. Ah yes... I almost forgot. You want info about the band. They’re German. They formed in 2004. They have an obsession with Melville and white whales. Their name is the same as Captain Ahab, yes, him, the whale-hater who wanted to screw Moby with his Dick. They claim to play Nautic Doom Metal. Yes, don’t worry, it's a new genre invented by them, you haven’t missed anything. It’s the same as funeral doom metal, except that when you listen to it, instead of imagining yourself at a funeral, you imagine being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles from land, at 3 am, without a moon, without food, without water, without clothes, and without a rubber duck life preserver. A nice feeling.
I've given the info, now I can happily go eat ice cream. So, we're all happy and content.

Yes, I know it’s my usual lengthy, loquacious, rambling, and annoying review of an album I liked. And you read it. And maybe you even liked it. And perhaps afterward you’ll get the album. And that’s why, yes, I, love you, debaseriani!;-)