It was by only the slightest beard hair that I avoided hearing the nautically-bent Ahab when they made their debut with 2006’s Call of the Wretched Sea. It wasn’t that I had something against the German funeral doom four-piece, just that I knew once I exposed myself to the record (hello!), I’d have to buy it. And we couldn’t have that, right? It stayed on my Amazon wish list for a while as I waited for the price to drop, but it never did, so I took it off and that seemed to be that on Ahab.

Until I heard The Divinity of Oceans, Ahab‘s new, second album through Napalm Records. Now I’m in the hole for two of the band’s releases and wondering why I bothered to resist in the first place. The band hone their watery craft across seven lengthy tracks — the shortest is “O Father Sea” at 7:07 — of snail’s pace riffing and deathly growls. Sporadic melodic vocals pop up in various moans and croons throughout, as on closer “Nickerson’s Theme,” and the guitars late into “Tombstone Carousal” are almost hopeful sounding, but the compass is pointing to oppressive doom lethargy, and Ahab are clearly skilled navigators.

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