Oh, AHAB, how I love your slow and gloomy approach to modern doom metal! But let's recap first: AHAB is a German doom-metal band who has recently celebrate their decade of gloomy work with the release of their 4th studio album, "The Boats of The Glen Carrig". Following the story of a novel of the same name by William Hope Hodgson, the album has several firsts for the band, among them their fastest song yet, their longest and their only one with only clean vocals (bonus track, couldn't get my flippers on it). Personally I am especially pleased with this last - the slow incline over the years for more clean vocals - as I've always thought that although the growls are great technique-wise, they seem rather out-of-place with the music.

The compositions are atmospheric throughout, but seem to mostly follow three basic trends: clean atmospheric (kinda reminds me of AGALLOCH), distorted chugging (reminds me of CANDLEMASS), or distorted atmospheric (a combination of both).  The atmospheric ideas all favor invoking the ocean - as to be expected, the band DOES classify itself as nautical doom metal, after all - with very spacey and slightly psychedelic overtones to them. These parts, bearing the same atmosphere of the book the record draws its name from, are the highlight of the album for me, as they create  very cool atmospheres that the more chugging, bang-your-head parts simply can't compete with.

Sound-wise, the record tends to be extremely bass-heavy (consistent with the band's sonic philosophy), with the guitars almost completely drowning the bass and much of the drums, with vocals hammering their way completely over the soundscapes. In roughly 99% of records that would have made it sound awful, but here it works within the context of the songs in a good way.

When it comes to Doom Metal, the ones closest to my heart are the old school bands and the bands of the sludgier variety. However, among the modern Doom Metal bands, AHAB are by far my favorite - and they do not disappoint.