Release
date: August 28th 2015. Label: Napalm Records. Formats:
CD/DD/Vinyl
The
Boats of The Glen Carrig: Tracklisting
The
Isle
The
Thing That Made Search
Red
Foam (The Great Storm)
The
Weedmen
To
Mourn Job
Band
Members:
Daniel
Droste: guitars, voices
Christian
Hector: guitars
Stephan
Wandernoth: bass
Cornelius
Althammer: drums
Review:
AHAB
are back with a breathtaking new album, and one that for my reckoning
is already a contender for Album Of The Year.
"The
Boats Of The Glen Carrig" based on the William Hope Hodgson
novel of the same name from 1907 tells the tale of the ship "Glen
Carrig" and it's crew of survivors in the aftermath of a ship
wreck and their efforts to survive in what the novel refers to as the
"land of lonesomeness"
The
opening track "The Isle" starts with beautiful clean
guitars with the deep vocals of Daniel Droste lamenting "It's
been five days in these boats of The Glen Carrig" as the track
builds and swells until the full band join in and it feels like the
track and the journey AHAB are about to take you on has started in
earnest.
For
me that's one of the most special things about this record, the way
that AHAB are able to lure you in and immerse you in the story they
are telling with their music, so much so that around the 5.25 mark
when the pace slows again, I'm sure I can hear the ships timbers
creaking and the waves lapping against the sides. The
song builds back up impressively and a riff comes in at around 8
minutes, that's so heavy I could listen to it for weeks. (And I have
been).
2nd
track "The Thing That Made Search" starts in similar
fashion with more of those impressive clean vocals over a passage of
music that wouldn't be entirely out of place on a Porcupine Tree
record. Beautiful vocal harmonies are showcased and the guitars and
bass stand out clearly during the opening few minutes as the music
gently tails of. Then riffs. So. Many. Riffs. Seamlessly dropping in
quieter passages before lurching back into heavier sections, this
really is one of the standout tracks on the album.
Up
next is "Like Red Foam (The Great Storm)" the first and
only track under ten minutes from the album, but that doesn't stop
AHAB from showing us everything they're capable of and brilliantly
mixes the heavy and clean vocals and thunders along at quite the pace
before the next track.
And
that next track "The Weedmen" really is something else. 15
minutes of perfect, aquatic doom goodness. As you can probably
imagine this isn't the fastest track on the record (though by no
means a crawl) it just gives the listener more of an opportunity to
think about what's gone before and what's to come as the tale and the
album near their conclusion. It is a beautifully written and
performed piece of music and a credit to them that 15 minutes just
slides past and before we know it we are onto the closing track of
the album.
"To
Mourn Job" starts again with a clean lone guitar and that voice,
before the rest of the band start to build the tension with a
hypnotic riff, before stomping on those fuzz pedals and the track
kicks into life with a repetitive almost off kilter riff, that if you
listen to it loudly enough (and you should) could actually make you
seasick.
They
keep this up for a good 8 minutes before the track almost returns to
the start, with some gentle lone guitars which gradually builds into
a well controlled crescendo before another painfully heavy and
lurching riff which suddenly tails of into feedback and with that
we're done. Job would be proud.
I've
lived with this album for a couple of weeks now and have struggled to
listen to anything else. It's a perfectly crafted, written and
performed record that reminds exactly why I fell in love with music
like this in the first place.
Go
and check out the video to "Like Red Foam (The Great Storm)"
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhUwUBJz9ik
- and then head over to Napalm Records to pre order a record I firmly
believe you need in your life.
Words
by Simon Ross Williams
Thanks
to Mona and Jon at Napalm Records for the promo. The Boats Of The Glen Carrig will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Napalm Records on August 28th 2015.
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