By: Daniel Jackson
Album Type:
Full Length
Date Released:
26/01/2018
Label:
Century Media Records
I’ll
stop short of calling this Tribulation’s defining masterpiece, if only because the
band seem to keep outdoing themselves. For that same reason, it’s hard to
imagine the band won’t have even more to show us as the years go by, and that’s
a thrilling prospect.
‘Down Below’ CD//DD//LP track listing:
01. The Lament
02. Nightbound
03. Lady Death
04. Subterranea
05. Purgatorio
06. Cries From The Underworld
07. Lacrimosa
08. The World
09. Here Be Dragons
The Review:
By this point, most of you reading
this are going to be familiar with the transformation Tribulation
has undergone over the last decade or so. Beginning as a more traditional, yet
unique and creative Swedish death metal band, and over time moving further and
further into a lush, blackened goth metal kind of sound. That’s not exactly a
common trajectory for a band, but then Tribulation isn’t a
common band.
While I’m sure there are still
people holding out hope for something closer to ‘The Horror’ or ‘The Formulas
of Death’, 2015’s ‘The Children of
the Night’ was a definitive clean break from the thrashy, progressive death
metal of the band’s early years. The glowing reception with which the album was
received by both critics and a large number of new and current fans of the band
probably wouldn’t have dissuaded them from continuing on their current course.
All of that is to say that ‘Down Below’ is a further exploration of
the sound Tribulation established with ‘Children of the Night’, leaning into
the accessible nature of their previous album and further toying with the
subjective boundaries each of us set as to what counts as metal vs. hard rock.
In that sense a good comparison point might be a band like Ghost,
even if the two are pretty different, stylistically. This correlation is
particularly evident on “Subterranea”,
with its subtle inclusion of classic heavy metal elements in the verse, and the
theatrical nature of the song’s opening moments.
Tribulation’s
current modus operandi is straddling the fence
between commercial accessibility and the underground’s love of artistic
indulgence and morose aesthetics. Johannes Andersson’s vocals—as decipherable
as they may be—are still very much in a black metal vein, and will continue to
limit the pace at which they can grow their fanbase. Looking at them purely as
an artistic choice, it works for me, but I love vocals in that style to begin
with. But it also means their ceiling will remain at a certain level.
Instrumentally and compositionally,
it’s clear as day that the band is continuing to appeal to a larger audience,
but Andersson’s vocals keep them tethered to their point of origin, and
interviews the band has done in the past indicate that it’s a conscious choice.
It’s a part of their identity that they value more than whatever potential
growth might come from making a vocal change as drastic as their musical
changes have been. The vocal situation illustrates that Tribulation
is remarkably comfortable with who they are. Sure they could probably bring in a
singer like Pelle Åhman (who I’ve been advocating for on twitter for a couple
of years now), but then it wouldn’t be
them. The songs are immediately catchy, the vocals are caustic and grim.
That’s who Tribulation are.
Time has a funny way of proving
statements like this next one wrong, but in this moment, ‘Down Below’ feels like an improved and stronger version of the
vision they brought to life on ‘The
Children of the Night’. This album is a refinement rather than another
great leap forward, and I think that’s exactly what was needed. ‘The Children of the Night’ had the
benefit of leaving an immediate impression because it was so different, and
time has not been as kind to parts of that album because, in retrospect, the
whole experience would have been much better served at forty minutes than at
fifty-six. ‘Down Below’ is more
concise, and the songs here are better realized and written, outside of the
previous album’s opening pair of songs. I’ll stop short of calling this Tribulation’s defining masterpiece, if only because the
band seem to keep outdoing themselves. For that same reason, it’s hard to
imagine the band won’t have even more to show us as the years go by, and that’s
a thrilling prospect.
Band info: Official Site
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