Descending consecutive steps of the shadowy nooks and crannies of the psyche, like Werner Herzog revealing more abject layers of vampiric horror, Sweden’s Tribulation have never been a one-trick (bat) pony. They are the rare band with sophisticated songwriting smarts, an ominous and seductive allure, and the self-awareness to not tip their hand too far into unintentional macabre cheese camp while still straddling the gulf between Hammer homage, the deep subconscious mind, rock n’ roll, and death.
Everything seems executed with such distinct intent that you feel as if they rose, Nosferatu-like, from a crypt with music accompanying their lanky movements. It is a deception, as a lot of hard work and arranging must have gone into making these mercurial songs sound so pitch-perfectly balanced, lush, and still mean.
Hamartia (Century Media) is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-length EP that still sinks teeth. Less is more in this case, ironic for a band with such grandiose and decadent songs. It isn’t so much that the brevity is welcome, but since the new lineup are getting acclimated it is nice they gave us four absolute fang-bangers while working through any other imperceptible kinks. You are hungry for more but don’t feel baited.
After the triumph of Where The Gloom Becomes Sound (which will only gain more praise as time passes), it was a lot of pressure for new guitarist Joseph Tholl replacing the departing Jonathan Hultén. Regardless, the results speak for themselves and bode well for the band’s continued dominance.
With lots of great death or dark rock that is multi-faceted (peep the new Grave Pleasures or recent Devil Master) or dissonant yet crushingly heavy artists such as Konvent or Triptykon to choose from, it takes skill and awareness to stand out from the wolf pack. The title track here features beautiful, hypnotic guitar webs. The ‘Axis Mundi’ snaking main intro riff will also cut deep and stay with you, a perfect example of the group’s continued strength in hooks that don’t distract yet drive an occult aesthetic.
‘Hemoclysm’ is a gorgeous sprawl that sounds like Christian Death wrote a tribal dirge, but with black metal-esque vocals snarled and riding a fractal chaos spreading cloud of ink in a clear reflecting pool. The song is death-defying towards the banality of easy categorization.
The exploration of sin themes on this EP makes me wonder if ‘Sinner’ by Judas Priest would have been a better grandiose and bombastic cover than the nonetheless excellent Blue Öyster Cult ‘Vengeance’ cover Tribulation turned in, but no complaints.
The melodic vocal elements made me reassess if a band like Ghost could even exist without BOC preceding them historically, but Tribulation most definitely did not miss the mark here in some cheap appeal to bigger (also cool) fandoms and delivered a brilliant tribute to a deeper cut from the classic rock masterpiece of weirdness that is the Fire Of Unknown Origin album. The Tribulation version feels much more grimdark yet still fun and carnival, Johannes Andersson boldly updating the original with more grit, yet still honoring what made it special and dynamic.
Buy the EP here:
https://tribulation.lnk.to/hamartia
9 / 10
MORGAN Y. EVANS