Review by Sonny for Ahab - The Coral Tombs (2023)

German doom metal titans Ahab are back with their fifth full-length, eight years since previous album, The Boats of the Glen Carrig, hit the shelves. In common with all their previous releases, The Coral Tombs is a concept album based on a nautical-themed literary source. This time the aquatic source material is Jules Verne's classic science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Ever since their debut, The Call of the Wretched Sea, with each successive release Ahab have been steadily moving further away from their funeral doom beginnings and on The Coral Tombs, as with Glen Carrig, the band have adopted more of a straight-up doom metal sound similar to the likes of Monolord and Pallbearer, although the real touchstone here is Warning's classic Watching From A Distance, with both Daniel Droste's vocal and guitar phrasing sounding heavily influenced by Patrick Walker on that all-time classic - and anyone who knows anything about my musical preference knows that that will instantly grab my attention!

This doesn't mean that Ahab have abandoned extreme doom metal completely of course and there are several well-placed death doom moments when Droste's guttering growls replace his melancholy cleans and the riffs start their deathly chugging, though usually they are used now as a counterpoint to the mournful sadness of the cleaner sections, such as on Colossus of the Liquid Graves. During a track like this Ahab strike me as a death doom Opeth with the band sounding like they also want to push their progressive credentials a bit. I think Opeth is a fair comparison as I always considered the Swede's to be technically one of the best bands in their field and I think the same is true of Ahab, their instrumental skills and songwriting ability seem to be well in the upper echelons of the doom metal fratenity.

Over the course of their five albums Ahab have done a sterling job of capturing the feeling of being adrift on (or under in this case) the vast and uncompromising oceans of the world, with a loneliness and lack of control over one's destiny that is tangible within the notes of the band's music. This adroitness in so successfully creating such an oppressive, and yet at the same time beautiful, atmosphere is the mark of fantastic songwriters. There are times during The Coral Tombs when you can just picture the Nautilus sailing over breathtaking subterranean vistas, it's crew utterly entranced by the strange beauty of the previously unwitnessed ocean depths, so successfully do the band create these narrative pictures. One of the standout tracks for me is The Sea as a Desert where the band still exhibit some of their funeral doom tendencies, but ally this with a soul-wrenching mournfulness when Droste's cleans sound most like Patrick Walker and make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

There are a couple of guest vocal appearances on the opening and closing tracks - Chris Dark of Ultha adds his black metal shrieks to Droste's gutteral utterings on the explosive opening moments of Prof. Arronax' Descent Into the Vast Oceans (which then actually slows to a much more sedate and gentler atmosphere) and Esoteric's Greg Chandler helps out on The Mælstrom with his trademark growls. Neither guest slot is gratuitous and both bring something that Droste obviously felt he couldn't manage alone, but that the music required. So yet again Ahab prove that they are a top-drawer doom metal act, not restricting themselves, but rather drawing on several of it's sub-genres to enable a more expansive and rewarding experience for the listener whilst still presenting an unarguably doom metal release that is both haunting and crushing.