Ahab: To Sail Forbidden Seas
Funeral doom is one of the finer niches within heavy music. It’s like a slow-rolling tide, with long creeping build-ups to have the crescendo crash over you like a monolithic wave, which makes the genre’s live shows a unique experience. Enter Live Prey, the new live album from German doom pioneers AHAB, which offers a glimpse into the hypnotic abyss that is their performances.
“The idea was to do it really old school, really bootleg-ish,” explains Christian Hector, guitarist and founding member. “When the tape label asked Napalm Records they wanted to do a regular release for it, so things got bigger and bigger and now we have a proper live album!” You definitely get the bootleg vibe from the black and white, hand drawn-looking album cover depicting Moby Dick, the legendary white whale, and the novel of which the band’s first album is based on. “The artwork wasn’t meant to be printed on a big vinyl record,” Hector notes. “So I like it on the cassette more. Also, the cassette format lends itself to a raw sound a bit more.”
Live Prey showcases AHAB playing their debut album, Call Of The Wretched Sea, (almost) in its entirety at Death Row Fest 2017 in Jena, Germany. The audio was randomly given to them by the sound engineer after the show. “If we knew back then that this show would be a live album then probably we would have played the whole album live!” the guitarist jokes.
Since its release in 2006, AHAB‘s debut has gone on to be considered a staple of funeral doom. “Of course, this album is special for us because it was something that two friends did back then,” Hector reminisces. “We never would have dreamt what has become of this album until this day. For some people, it’s a classic and that’s a really big honour.” Call Of The Wretched Sea is an ambitious and majestic piece of work which the band was celebrating around the time of the recording of this live album. “If a festival like Roadburn comes over to you and says ‘you wanna play your first album in full?’ on our festival? It’s crazy. As we were playing it we had special memories coming back to us of when the band was just two young guys – although we weren’t that young.” As with the roots of Call Of The Wretched Sea he also explains how Live Prey offers the fuller band experience of the same songs. “In the beginning, we didn’t have proper basslines for example. The bass back then was just playing the same as the guitars, if anything at all! When Stephan [Wondernoth, Bass] came into our band it had some more guts to it because of this low end of the bass coming in. On Live Prey, it’s the whole band’s songs rather than just the two of us”.
Much like its neighbouring sub-genres of drone, stoner, and prog, a live funeral doom show relies on the unique atmosphere. Hector adds, “when I started listening to music like funeral doom or extreme psychedelic doom I was amazed by this trance-like sounds.” AHAB always tries to keep this aura in their lives shows, and Hector tells us of how he’s asked festival promoters to play at night, and that they prefer to keep to the smaller stages. “We have played in the daytime of course but it was strange because it was hot and it was too sunny for this kind of music. I wouldn’t wanna see bands like TYRANNY or ESOTERIC in the midst of the sun in summer. It’s nice to see any cool old death metal band in the sun but for bands that depend on this special mood, it’s not the same.”
There are no pits at these shows. Instead, the riffs wash over leaving you stuck in a trance, which is why cultivating this atmosphere is essential and rarely presented on live albums. “Normally live albums are like best-of albums, and I really dislike best-of albums, unless it’s pop music. But for metal, rock, or progressive it’s always like ‘you got to journey through the whole album’ and that’s why I like Live Prey because it’s most of our first record so it still works in sense of the story of Moby Dick.” One of the ways this unique crowd energy permeates on Live Prey is how quiet it is and AHAB loves this. “The biggest compliment for us is when people in the silent phases of our music when we’re being really smooth and calm with our guitars, you don’t hear anyone talking.” In fact, until the end of the final track, the audience is not noticeable at all.
Live Prey is one of the most unique live albums out there which is fitting for AHAB, a one-of-a-kind band within a genre that stands alone.
Live Prey is set for release on June 26th via Napalm Records.
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