The Horror

Some groups don't mess around -- and in the realm of death metal, there is no greater sin (aside perhaps from power ballads). So even though it sounds downright pretty for a couple of seconds, starting an album with an introductory piece called "Into the Jaws of Hell" is manifestly a good thing, and the rest of Tribulation's The Horror pretty well aims to live up to that title, thus later pieces called "Curse of Resurrection" and "Seduced by the Smell of Rotten Flesh." (Then there's "Beyond the Horror," which one almost shudders to consider the implications of -- though at least they have a title for the behind-the-scenes documentary on the special edition in six months time.) So much for signifiers -- musically Tribulation know their roots and offer up unsurprising variations on the manifold templates they can draw on, from the vomiting vocals to the hyperspeed guitar breaks that pretty much sound lifted directly from early Carcass albums. If tracks like "Crypt of Thanatophilia" sound a little cleaner than all of Reek of Putrefaction combined -- not to mention most everything by Darkthrone, say -- there are still moments that stand out well enough, a bit of chunky riffing here, some near swagger there, even some near silent moments of atmospherics. If it's all an homage in the end, it's a good enough one that knows the limits of the playground it wants to have fun in -- why else sign off with a last track called "Graveyard Ghouls" (which does beg the question -- where else does one find a ghoul?).

The ominous keyboards of brief intro "Into the Jaws of Hell" give way to a blast of old school SLAYER-isms with a blackened bite on "Crypt of Thanatophilia" and it becomes immediately clear that Sweden's TRIBULATION are not about peaceful protest or polite conversation. Not to be confused with the l...