### Tribulation: The horror

#### 18/11/10 || Habakuk

Let me start off with saying that this CD has an awesome booklet. Great cover, cool “gothic horror” artwork all the way through, glossy pages, what have you. The lyrics are hard to read but I don’t give a shit. This is a death metal band, after all. Kudos to Pulverized Records for rigging a debut like that. And what a debut it is. And hey, before you know, we’re smack dab in the middle of a review!

Tribulation hail from Sweden and released “The horror” in 2009 after only one demo and one EP. It does not show. This CD is put together in a most experienced and extremely talented fashion. A cheesy horror piano intro starts the whole thing off, and the first positive surprise: It lasts exactly 16 seconds. If you need an intro, that’s the way you do it. And if you need death metal, the next eight songs are the way you do it. First of all, check out the songtitles – “Graveyard ghouls”. “Crypt of Thanatophilia”. “Sacrilegious Darkness”. That’s a check on needless use of foreign words, abundance of references to blasphemy and death, as well as “x of y”-songtitles. Congratulations, you’ve mastered metal wording school.

Next up: Music. Honestly, there’s not much more left for mastering. These four dudes let loose a Sweden-tinged high speed barrage of the finest sort, underlying raspy but clearly death-oriented vocals that remind me (distantly) of Pete Helmkamp of Angel Corpse. Fast picked guitars lay a thick riff carpet with the occasional bass snarl shining through to the vigilant listener. The guitars have a sharp edge, so the mental image you need for understanding the nature of “The horror”‘s sound is a fat Persian carpet with razor blade edges. Got that? Good. Now imagine a guy with a carpet beater that knows his craft only too well, and has recently swallowed a month’s supply of Duracells. He has washed it down with two liters of coffee and is now beating the shit out of the carpet rhythmically. For some reason, he has a few cymbals lying around and knows a few tricks on those as well, but don’t let that distract you. There you go. Now let me tell you, this shit rips.

Apt use of double bass and thrashy beats wrestle with intricate and effective riffing, occasionally resulting in kick-ass pace changes. Only rarely the riff barrage makes room for small, gloomy single-note melodies that manage well to carry the horror feeling along. Still, they never fail to evolve into more death metal madness after a few seconds again. Not only during the lightning fast guitar solos it shows that these folks have a knack for playing their instruments, but they manage as well to canalize their efforts into intense, versatile songs between 3 and 5 minutes. And that’s something only a very small fraction of today’s metal scene excels at.

Yes, it’s official now: This is the first confirmed omission I have to report regarding my personal best of 2000-2009 list. The horror…

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Pulverized Records
- Website: www.tribulation.se
- Band
- Johannes Andersson: vocals, bass
- Jonathan Hultén: guitars
- Adam Zaars: guitars
- Jakob Johansson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Into the jaws of Hell
- 02. Crypt of Thantophilia
- 03. Cursed resurrection
- 04. Beyond the horror
- 05. The Vampyre
- 06. Sacrilegious darkness
- 07. Spawn of the jackal
- 08. Seduced by the smell of rotten flesh
- 09. Graveyard ghouls