Tribulation - The Formulas Of Death

Published April 14 2013

*=Staff's pick	Vagina Dentata Wanderer In The Outer Darkness* Spectres Suspiria Through The Velvet Black Rånda* When The Sky Is Black With Devils Spell Ultra Silvam Apparitions*

Genre	Death Metal	Johannes Andersson	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jonathan Hultén	Guitar
Running time	76 Min.	Adam Zaars	Guitar
Label	Invictus Productions	Johannes Andersson	Bass
Release	01 March 2013	Jakob Ljungberg	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	Sonne Adam, Necros Christos

The follow-up to 2009's acclaimed retro death gem 'The Horror' has been a highly anticipated one. Most of us surely expected another primitive relentless death metal attack as heard on the debut. Interviews and the release of the cover art promised though promised something completely different and surely puzzled more people than yours truly. Statements of a more mature sound combined with a cover art more resembling alternative rock than death metal did not exactly raise my hopes for an 'album of the year'-candidate.

Sure enough something has happened to Tribulation. A more mature sound generally means either overtly experimental, excessive technical wankery or plain boring. To be quite honest, during the first couple of spins I could not figure out which of the three to apply to 'The Formulas of Death'. Sure, the albums foundation firmly relies on good old Swedish death metal with technical parts more resembling the Tampa scene and a fairly polished production.

The album however is packed with moody passages bearing influences from jazz, oriental music, folk music and Beelzebub knows what. The common theme of these passages as well as the album in whole is an amazing dark feeling few death metal bands has managed to conjure. Whereas 'The Horror' had a darkness resembling your average zombie apocalypse, 'The Formulas of Death' is melancholic and plain creepy.

All this experimentation sure is a mouthful to handle. It took me about seven or eight spins before the brilliance of this sophomore disc finally started to emerge and it gets more brilliant with each listen. The mood from start to finish is simply captivating and the riffs even outmatch those of the excellent debut. The true strength though lies in the album as a whole, this truly is a piece of art supposed to be heard in its whole rather than hacked up in a party playlist.

It is a demanding album for sure and penetrating the depths of 'The Formulas of Death' will take time, but the reward makes it worth every second. Contrary to my initial expectations this one will most likely find its way into my Top 10 of 2013.

See also review of: The Children Of The Night

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	9	7	8	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tengan