When our editor offered me this for review I expected a fairly straight-forward case. Having read the name Tribulation in the context of new old-school death metal a few years back, surely a blast of stinking death was going to be the order of the day, right? Wrong! When I fired up ‘The Formulas of Death’ for the first time, the sounds emanating from the speakers immediately set alarm bells ringing. And when I noticed that gargantuan playing time of seventy-five minutes, I was beginning to wonder exactly what I’d gotten myself into here. Perhaps the most jarring shock of all however, was the opening song title…
‘Vagina Dentata’ (in ‘loose’ terms): the male anxiety, in Freud’s odd psychology, of an evil toothed vagina which intends to devour any man meat attempting to plumb its squidgy depths. Now, my encounters with this psycho-analytic beast can be traced back to university and the gibberish I had to write about films such as ‘Jaws’ in relation to it. Fortunately, Tribulation’s treatment of the hairy, toothed assassin is as far from gibberish as you can get. Classic images of ‘Apocalypse Now’ immediately spring to mind as something approximate to The Doors shimmers out of the first seconds. When the metal does arrive, it heaps yet more scorn on my preconceptions about Tribulation. An atmosphere akin to black rather than death metal prevails, with music alternating between bursts of heaviness and spacey, prog vibes. Words such as ‘subtlety’ and ‘proficiency’ characterise the experience as it ensues, with blastbeats, discordance and rasped vocals expertly employed on ‘Wanderer in the Outer Darkness’. I’m reminded here of Koldbrann’s ‘Vertigo’ as technicality contrasts with flashes of punk, and things go from gentle to epic to pure cult.
Watain is another name which partially springs to mind until track four steers things back in a stranger direction. Consisting of obscure piano with ‘aquatic’ guitar strummed evocatively over, the track again invokes that sense of 60s mysticism, with added ominousness that instinctively pulled the words ‘Dario Argento soundtrack’ from the depths of my mind. To my surprise – and reassurance in writing that last thought out loud – the following track is entitled ‘Suspiria’. The first of two album epics, it clocks in at over ten minutes. Building slowly with swathes of lulling guitar, a disconcerting contrast is achieved as power chords and Johannes’ voice venomously spit out. What I appreciate about Tribulation’s style as a whole is how the differing feels don’t appear at all disparate, and in fact remain acutely listenable. One particularly noteworthy section in ‘Suspiria’ is where the bass casually strolls through surrounding cascades of instrumentation. By half-way, I can easily envisage this as the perfect album to have blasting out of my mp3 player while laying on a sun-drenched recliner, eyes closed and complimentary whisky in hand…
Furthering the rich tapestry of sounds and techniques comes the visceral attack of ‘Through the Velvet Black’, and ‘Rånda’, with its ‘necro-nautical’ feel. Almost like a tacit affirmation of the latter’s oceanic undertones, ‘When the Sky is Black with Devils’ starts vaguely, with some prolonged beams of sound (synth as opposed to guitar) a la Maiden’s ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’. Elsewhere, nuanced black metal riffs and structures do the talking, as less abrasive tones mix smoothly in. A lovely, galloping mid-section juxtaposed with jagged guitars is the highpoint of overt rager ‘Spell’, while ‘Ultra Silvam’ confounds and confuses with an almost Australian outback twang to the guitars. All this leads into the second epic, and album closer, ‘Apparitions’. In that classic vein pioneered by the likes of Bathory, Gorgoroth and Dissection, hints of majesty glimmer out from the depths of impenetrable blackness. A funeral bell and forlorn, pathos-laden black metal with atmospheric keys signal the gradual climax of this triumphant journey.
So, now I have to ask myself what just happened?! Tribulation’s vision here is hard to place with so many styles and fleeting nuances cropping up throughout. It’s best therefore to accept it as the unique piece of musical art that it is. ‘The Formulas of Death’ is the type of album to immerse yourself in; the kind of ‘progressive’ that even I can dig. It is definitely going to appeal to far more people than their previous approach (in fact I have it on good authority that there is already a massive buzz around this release). The only aspect which might be an obstacle for myself – depending on mood – is the album’s immense running time. Although a great sense of pacing and fluidity is at the core here, it does require plenty of free time and attention to let it all flow over you in the way that it should. Otherwise, this is a stellar piece of metal and deserving of the same score which I should have awarded Koldbrann’s similarly defiant ‘Vertigo’.
(8.5/10 Jamie Wilson)
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