Review Summary: German death-doom 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the album.
Ahab has had a robust setting in the death-doom realm since their Moby Dick-inspired debut in the mid-2000s. I gave that debut a spin out of curiosity and noticed a common level of progression when just taking the catalog’s bookends. There’s a heightened clean vocal presence and a production value that’s much smoother around the edges, watering down the “death” of the death-doom style over time. While Ahab’s debut is very good, improvements could have been made to its creativity and pacing with some stylistic tweaks. I’d say these tweaks have put the band in just as good, maybe even slightly better, position.
The album’s first two minutes get off to a peculiar start with the mixed-range harsh vocals fronting a black metal-ish intro. As 2000’s Leagues under the Sea introduces its monstrosity at the very start of its story, the album follows suit. The next section retains its calmness throughout the rest of the track, displaying the narrator’s, or Prof. Arronax’, curiosity of the creature as he begins his journey. It’s a great and tellingly experienced way of bringing the story’s introduction to life, whether the listener is familiar with it or not.
That invigoration of the novel provides a strong bolster to several tracks here and influences some awesome ideas. “Mobilis in Mobili” is the harshest vocally on the record due to the lyrical proclamations of what’s likely the monster ranting against the travelers. The ambient section halfway through acts as a breather for the creature before it continues its growls. Dread, sorrow, and the transition between the two on “A Coral Tomb” is remarkably demonstrated with the chilling instrumental crawl of the first half. The second half slips into a somber key backing the eulogy that follows the body discoveries. It’s a simple concept, but it works amazingly around Ahab’s death-doom expertise. “Aegri Somnia”, the longest song on the record, works as a great parallel between the final act of 20,000 Leagues and the penultimate cut of the album, bringing with it some solid grime and melody into a twelve-minute package.
20,000 Leagues is understandably dense, but the album is not as brimming with ideas as to go over an hour in runtime without some sort of fatigue. A couple of tracks are relatively indistinct and are not as memorably written as the album’s highlights. The production effects on “The Sea as a Desert” sound a bit more dated than in other places where those effects are attempted. And while they’re not always bad, the clean vocals occasionally try to “shout” to get to the desired range, which is offputting on various segments where cleans are featured.
With veteranship often comes high expectations of recreating past strengths whilst simultaneously not leaving fans burnt out on a signature style. By the fifth album, this balance is extremely crucial. The combination of the newfound production polish and more melodic nature of A Coral Tomb has assuredly helped strike that balance. As Ahab might know, it’s like refurbishing a passenger vessel, hopefully without all the sea monster shenanigans.
