Ahab

The sea can be very quiet or very loud and sinister, but also it can be a very lonely and frighting experience as well. Such is parallel to the sounds of sea-doomers Ahab. We let it rip and made the band feel welcome. First of all let me congratulate you on a fantastic album...


 Are you satisfied with how "The Divinity of Oceans" ended up?“

Thank you very much! Of course we’re satisfied with the result, otherwise we’d never released it. We all gave our best and it was really a hard piece of work this time but we’re very proud of our latest release.”

Would you mind telling us about the process you went through with "The Divinityof Oceans", both writing and recording? 
“I wrote most of the stuff at home in my little recording studio. I’m no sound engineer or something like that, I just used a mac and protools to collect ideas and arrange a little bit. The main part of arranging was done by the whole band which was very important to me because if you’re too deep into the material you sometimes need some more “neutral” point of views, otherwise you can’t get forward.
The recording of guitars, bass and vocals was done by our drummer Cornelius. He already has experience in recording and owns the essential tools so this was an excellent possibility for us to work like we want to.”

Almost 3 years between the "The Call of the Wretched Sea" and "The Divinity of Oceans", do you feel the band has evolved in any way during this time? “I definitely think that we’ve grown together as a band especially after the line-up change on bass. We played more gigs after the “The Divinity of Oceans” was released, so our live presence became much better. Our sound grew and has more variety now on instruments and on vocals, we’ve moved another step forward with “The Divinity of Oceans” in shaping Ahab’s sound!”

It appears to me that The Divinity of Oceans is just as the names states, much more divine and calmer then The Call, was this evolution intentional? 
“It is always my intention to work with contrasts such as calmer and heavy parts. Both are most effective if they crush together. Although I wanted to use this element and add some mellow parts on “The Divinity of Oceans”, I didn’t know how the overall impression would be until everything was arranged. The way of composing was different this time. On ”The Call of the Wretched Sea” we composed song after song. This time I just collected riffs and melodies in my homestudio and in the end we’ve chosen the best material and combined the parts to songs.”

An obvious question is about your lyrical and musical theme. What is with vast desolate oceans and sperm whales that obsess you? 
“It’s the sea itself that fascinates me. A force of nature on the one hand, mighty and able to destroy but also very beautiful, a vast source of life that still hides a lot of secrets in its unexplored depths.”

Do you have any major influences on your music in any way? 
“As a composer you of course try to sound as unique and original as possible, but stuff you like always has an influence on your work, it’s impossible to avoid that. There are many many bands I really like....Anathema, Opeth, Black Label Society, Carcass, Porcupine Tree, Mastodon’s “Crack the Skye” is a real masterpiece such as the latest release of Alice in Chains.
In the doom sector i prefer the traditional stuff at the moment..., stuff like Spirit Caravan, Pentagram, Warning or our Swedish label colleagues Isole are always worth listening to!”

How is your view on the current state of the doom scene? Is quality doom still being crafted, or are the glory days of classics behind us? 
“I really like the flair of the classic stuff, but, compared to other genres I really have to say that the number of good bands in the doom scene is damn high. Maybe the reason for that is that musicians such as fans are older compared to those of the mainstream metal stuff.”

Any last words for the readers? “Thank you very much for your interest! Check out “The Divinity of Oceans”, Cheers!”