Ahab – The Giant

May 25, 2012 • Napalm Records

I remember first hearing The Call of the Wretched Sea and being thoroughly impressed by it: for me, it was something new, a dark voyage through the most heavy and despairing funeral doom metal. It opened me up to a lot of similar bands as well, so I have them to thank for that. But something must have happened between their debut and The Giant (I admit I skipped their second album), because this album doesn't come close to the same level their debut did.

While Ahab still brings the doom, they seem to be trying to jump on the post-metal bandwagon, of all things; there are plenty of delay-laden clean passages, lots of lighter melodies, and lots of clean singing while some of the heavier parts and the death vocals feel very forced. It barely sounds like the same band at all—of course that's not a bad thing if the music is still good, but I don't think Ahab quite has a handle on this kind of sound yet. While the songs aren't bad, the singing comes off as really cheesy and the music seems like it is always trying to get really heavy but never quite makes it.

Taken on its own merits, The Giant is still a pretty decent sludgy doom album. Maybe it's a bit generic, maybe it's a bit corny. But it's not horrid. It has some good crunchy riffs, nice melodies here and there (the middle of "Aeons Elapse" and end of "Deliverance" are two of my favorites), and the general atmosphere is alright; but there still isn't much to say about it because as a whole the album just isn't very interesting. It just reminds me of plenty of bands I'd rather hear instead—Earth, Corrupted, Giant Squid, or of course Call of the Wretched Sea.

Needless to say I probably won't be returning to The Giant. Ultimately, it's just okay; again it's not bad but if four listens wasn't enough to convince me that it's worth keeping around, I doubt any more will.

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