Named after Captain Ahab from Herman Melville's classic book Moby-Dick, Ahab is a doom metal band from Mosbach, Germany. The band was formed in 2004 by guitar players Christian Hector and Daniel Droste, both of whom also performed in the folk-metal band Midnattsol. After releasing a demo recording, The Oath, in 2005, the band made its full-length debut with 2006's The Call of the Wretched Sea. With its slow, dirge-like tempos and atmospheric gloom, the album became popular amongst fans of funeral doom metal, and Ahab toured the European continent for several years before releasing a second album, The Divinity of Oceans, in 2009. The Divinity of Oceans was inspired by the story of the Essex, the 19th century American ship whose sinking by a sperm whale inspired Melville to write Moby-Dick. For 2012's The Giant, Ahab turned to different source material, taking inspiration from the seafaring sections described in Edgar Allen Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. 2015's The Boats of the Glenn Carrig, which reached Number 79 on the German charts, was influenced by the William Hope Hodgson novel of the same name. The band released a live album, 2020's Live Prey, before beginning work on another studio project this time. This time, the classic Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas served as the inspiration. The result was 2023's The Coral Tombs, an internationally successful album that reached Number 26 in Germany, Number 64 in Austria, and Number 64 in Switzerland.
