Tribulation - The Formulas of Death

"Downwards I turn..."

Metal is old. Black Sabbath’s golden anniversary was last year. It’s safe to say we have reached the limits of what you can do with a distorted guitar and an HM-2 pedal. Whatever old school death metal you come up with might be enjoyable but it won’t be more enjoyable than Left Hand Path, Like an Ever Flowing Stream or Leprosy. Smart bands figure that out pretty quickly. Even Chuck Schuldiner stopped making traditional death metal after two albums. You need a gimmick. Without a gimmick, it’s damnatio ad simile. You’re good, but “not as good as”. So you make death metal with robots (Artificial Brain), aliens (Blood Incantation) or eldritch abominations (Sulphur Aeon). Or eldritch alien robot abominations (Nocturnus).

I was blessed enough to get into metal during its new millennium renaissance. By the time I jumped on the scene, nu metal was dead and gone, metalcore was giving way to deathcore as the “genre to hate” du jour, progressive djent noodlers were on the horizon and the only example of dissonant death metal was still Obscura. It took metal bands a while to figure that one out… Metal was in a state of flux. Between all the revival movements, the post-metal boom and a million other things that have since faded, there was a small number of bands bringing classic death metal to places it hadn’t been before.

The acts of this nearly imperceptible movement were all fresh to the scene, unfettered by convention or expectation. Their names were Morbus Chron, Obliteration and Tribulation. Of course, they all started as your typical swedeath clone. Competent and fun, but “not as good as”. This all came to a head in the years 2013/4 when each band brought platters of outstanding quality and vision to the unsuspecting and unwary. Obliteration released their spacey riff vortex Black Death Horizon and Morbus Chron unleashed a hypnotic journey of psychedelic death - Sweven. But first to the mountaintop, in February of 2013 was Tribulation’s The Formulas of Death.

The Formulas of Death is gothic. Not gothic as in whatever the phrase “gothic rock” purports to describe. Gothic as in towering castles, rolling thick fog, cobwebs, bats, wolves howling. The full moon illuminating a dark cobblestone street. A person hiding his face behind a wide brimmed hat and a black cloak. This is the sort of imagery that Tribulation revel in and shape into a vivid sonic painting. But while that’s the main thrust of the album, it’s not the whole story. Ingredients from all corners of the horror spectrum make their way into their sound. The occult is present throughout, magick is hinted at and possibly invoked. I’d venture to say Tribulation owes as much to Ghost and their occult revival antics as they do to a band like Pestilence.

The two main strengths of The Formulas of Death are the essence of why I, personally, think it is outstanding amongst most of the music I’ve heard: firstly, it strikes the perfect tone when it comes to the aesthetics without ever coming across as ‘camp’. Secondly, it does that squarely within the parameters of a death metal album, providing the main attraction when it comes to the genre in droves - the album is overflowing with exciting, kinetic, memorable, heavy and unique riffs. These are the two pillars that allow the album to maintain a consistent level of legendary quality throughout 75 minutes.

Structurally, the album is punctuated at key points by interludes which precede the cornerstones of the album: Vagina Dentata warmly welcomes us to descend and join the Wanderers in the Outer Darkness, לילה (Leila, hebrew for ‘night’) lulls the listener into the dreamlike Suspiria de Profundis, and Ultra Silvam ramps up to the bombastic finale, Apparitions. At the very center of the album lies Rånda, a spiralling hypnotic number, leading neither forwards nor backwards, but inward, like looking into the eye of the vampire.

By the time the bells hit towards the end of Apparitions, I have met with monsters from beyond, participated in blood rituals, danced with the ghosts of those gone by, lost my soul in an endless ocean of darkness, cursed the living and the dead and witnessed the hordes of the one who dwells below blacken the sky with their wings. Weary but satisfied, I return to the world of the living.

As for the experimental death metal wave, it fizzled out almost immediately after it started. Morbus Chron split up in 2015 and Obliteration’s release schedule was not frequent enough to carry the torch. Horrendous took the reigns of the movement for a while but it did not last. I suspect the increase in popularity of dissonant death metal whisked away many a band that could’ve contributed to such a scene.

As for Tribulation, like many bands who miss the forest for the trees, they went from a great death metal act with a great gimmick to an act with a gimmick. I still marginally enjoy their output but can’t help but feel disappointed with each release. With that said, it seems they’ve found some well-deserved success, and hey, I’ll always have this one.