Tribulation - Down Below

Tribulation drummed up a nice little hype around their name in 2015 with their theatrical blend of gothic rock instrumentals with a heaping spoonful of metallic edge added to the mix with black metal’s heaviness and vocal stylings. I happened to catch their campy, but respectably energetic live show that same year and I figured their album was worth checking out. For all the hype it was getting, I thought The Children of the Night was a pretty mild affair upon finally hearing it. I found their blend of more traditional heavy metal and gothic rock with a few black metal elements to not be as unique or as captivating as it was being made out to be. It certainly wasn’t a bad album, but I don’t think its creative strengths totally outshined its mandatorily addressable flaws. While Tribulation certainly bring quality instrumentation, talented performances, and balanced production to the table on The Children of the Night, the band don’t consistently bring the writing chops to back it up and consequently it leads to the album giving the meandering impression that they don’t know how to do a lot with their own sound. I’m often reminded of Ghost when listening to it for the showy blend of old and new styles, only Ghost is far more proficient at writing insatiable hooks and doing more with less instrumentally.

With a lot of similar pacing and unwavering tempo to its predecessor, Down Below is a very straightforward sequel that sounds like the band is riding their own hype train more than they are crafting their still-prototypic sound, and, considering it’s been almost three years since, perhaps it’s an insight into how hard is even for Tribulation themselves to make interesting music with this sound in mind.

I don’t want to tear into the band or this album too hard because I do like it, a little, and I think it’s okay for Tribulation to still be in the process of getting fully comfortable in their sound. I just want to pull back the hype around them a bit to provide a clearer image of who they are.

“The Lament” kicks the album off nicely, with the advantage of being the first taster, but it it’s a song that showcases some of the band’s best writing abilities, working key-breaking guitar leads into an eerie, epic mood. “Nightbound” follows up nicely as well with some In Flames-esque guitar work that leads into a climax of arpeggiated harmonies paired with some church bells for an epic calling down of the darkness over the day. “Lady Death”, unfortunately falls short with a slightly faster pace and more thrashy guitars that don’t thrash hard enough or add enough to the band’s sound on the song. The piano-laced and guitar-lifted “Subterranea” haunts much like a song I could see Ghost playing, but it still could have used more directional writing and volume dynamic to make its highs and lows shine more. “Purgatorio”, midway through, serves as just a mellow, spooky interlude, maintaining the vibe for a little break before “Cries from the Underworld” smoothly leads out of it with plinking synth (maybe) sound into a largely forgettable dirge. “Lacrimosa” is much more majestically crafted gothic thrasher, also making great use of some atmospheric black metal dynamic in the middle and a quirky synth line near the end. “The World”, though, is a rather clumsy drum-beat-driven head-nodder that only marches in place, and “Here Be Dragons”, the album’s longest song, sounds pretty recycled by the time it comes and too same-y compared to the eight songs before it to be the epic closer it’s clearly meant to be.

Tribulation clearly have something there that seems to only come through in waves on both of their recent albums. They have character and a style that I think they can make a name for themselves with, I just wonder if they’re trying more to make a name and image for themselves than to hone their sound, possibly facing the risk of diluting their uniqueness with outside elements or by chasing different moods in order to better enhance their sound. Down Below strives for a creepy, gothic epic-ness that I’m happy to hear a band these days besides Cradle of Filth going for, and the album has a few hits in that department. I’d just like to see them bring in some additional sonic elements in the future to broaden their compositional arsenal.