The evolution of Ahab, from curious underground hopefuls to one of the doom world’s most devastating creative forces, has been a joy to behold.
2012’s The Giant was such a colossal statement of intent that it was hard to imagine where the Germans would go next, but The Boats Of Glen Carrig proves that a three-year gap has been well spent.
Superficially, this is more of the same slow-motion riffing, effervescent dynamic shifts and moments of melodic finery. Dig deeper, however, and there’s a very pointed expansion of those basic ideas lurking on the ocean bed.
Opening epic The Isle glides into view on a wave of twinkling elegance, before those trademark bludgeoning crescendos kick in; Ahab sound emboldened for another macabre onslaught. Meanwhile, both The Thing That Made Search and gargantuan closer To Mourn Job take the band into more epic, deathly territory, but even within those heavier moments there is a sense that Ahab are mutating in real time, lost in their mesmerising, seabound vision.
