| CD REVIEW Tribulation |
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Band: Tribulation There used to be a Norwegian Thrash formation called Tribulation at the end of the eighties and a Swedish Thrash / Crossover band with the same name about fifteen to twenty years ago, but this band with the same moniker started in 2001. Tribulation hail from Arvika, Sweden, and after a couple of demo tapes in the first half of this decennium, the band released the well-received mini-album Putrid Rebirth through Blood Harvest. Recently the band signed to the great label Pulverised Records for the release of the debut full length The Horror. Jonatan Hulten (g), Johannes Andersson (v, b), Adam Zaars (g) and Jakob Johansson (d) (some of them, by the way, are or were also in Enforcer, Hazard, Sars or Guerilla) recorded this album, which has duration of almost (only?!) thirty three minutes, at the Hvergelmer Studios with Enforcer / Hazard-colleague Olof Wikstrand, while the mix and mastering were done by Tore ‘Necromorbus’ Stjerna (Damnation Army, In Battle, Watain, Sathanas, Valkyrja amongst others). The result is a gigantic deathrasher, smashing, crushing, thrashing, pulverising… While the band was especially Thrash-oriented in the early years, the compositions have now evolved into merciless Death Metal with a thrashy edge. And from time to time, this thrashy edge reaches a blackish level (Dark Funeral / Marduk / Damnation Army). The production is full and powerful, giving the whole a modern sound. At the same time, however, the atmosphere has a fierce old school-approach. Every single track comes with conviction and intelligence, and besides a certain, inevitable Swedish audible presence, there’s a subtle injection from both the European and American scene. I don’t know what’s going on in Sweden lately, yet the Death Metal scene provided several top albums lately (by bands as This Ending, Devian, Zonaria, Miseration, Evocation, Flesh, Bloodbath, Séance etc etc etc), and with The Horror, Tribulation now belongs to this elite too! 88/100 Ivan Tibos. |