Album Review: "The Boats of the Glen Carrig" by Ahab

The Boats of the Glen Carrig

Let's have a quick lesson in metal sub-genres:

Metal, NWOBM, Thrash, Speed, Stoner, Death, Grindcore, Deathcore, Metalcore, Doom, Gloom, Symphonic, Black, and about 700 others right?

Well, as always I try to steer clear of most of the metal subgenres because I don't think what you write about makes you all that different, but hey, that's just me.

Today's review, Ahab, has created a new metal subgenre:

Nautical Doom Metal.

OK. We'll roll with this. One of the things that makes this album especially cool is that we're dealing with another highly literate metal band. This album is based off of the 1907 novel of the same name. So, Eye of Solitude might have a little competition there....

Ahab

Ahab actually does remind me quite a bit of Eye of Solitude, which is a very good thing.

Their music is big, expansive, and plodding. Ahab is in no hurry to make their point, but they would much rather tell it to you over time.

The guitars are huge. Aside from ringing cleans, rumbling chords full of distortion, and melodic and metal solos, well...I suppose there's really no aside from that.

The guitars tell large parts of the story through their sheer size, volume and persistence. Never backing down and never speeding up.

This album, and the guitars, is very deliberate.

In the five tracks, this listener is taken all over the seas. Never staying in one place too long, the album jumps around. Sweet melodies intermingling with destructive brutality.

The album opens with beautiful tenor vocals only to pulled under by the demonic growling. The Boats of Glen Carrig is a lesson in literate, progressive metal that everyone should know.

Release: 8/28/15
Genre: Metal
Label: Napalm Records
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