TRIBULATION
Sub Rosa In Æternum
Century Media Records
Sweden's TRIBULATION achieved goth-metal perfection with 2021's magnificent Where The Gloom Becomes Sound. The album offered a spot-on mix of drama and melancholia and heft and bite - with bassist Johannes Andersson providing a hint of blackness with his gravel-throated vocals.
The band's fifth album, Gloom marked the culmination of a metamorphosis for TRIBULATION, which started off as a traditional Swedish death metal outfit but had been evolving ever since to add more mystery and accessibility. It was bold, confident and damn near flawless. But not long before it was released, guitarist Jonathan Hulten, the architect of this evolution as the main songwriter, announced his departure, leaving the band's future - or at least its musical direction - in question.
TRIBULATION soldiered on with new guitarist, and long-time acquaintance, Joseph Tholl, ex of thrash metallers ENFORCER. The pandemic offered an opportunity for the band to get its post-Hulten songwriting house in order, which yielded the four-song EP Hamartia in 2023.The EP wasn't much of a stretch, largely echoing the sound of Gloom, which was probably a smart move. Better to save any loftier ambitions for a full album.
Album number six, Sub Rosa In Æternum, is certainly an ambitious undertaking. TRIBULATION has thrown caution to the wind and gone all-in with the gothic side of its persona while scaling back on the "metalness". And though the album still flexes plenty of muscle, the overall presentation has more of a cinematic rock feel that at various times brings to mind the likes of TYPE O NEGATIVE, Nick Cave, SISTERS OF MERCY, HIM and DANZIG.
It's a fairly drastic shift that may catch some off-guard - me being one - and take time to warm up to. But after a few spins, the album's strengths begin to emerge and in the end it's hard to argue that opting for this direction wasn't the right call.
The most obvious change here is in Andersson's vocals, with the gritty rasp largely giving way to the sort of clean basso croon characterized by most of the acts mentioned just above. And though it sometimes sounds a wee bit awkward, as on "Hungry Waters" or "Poison Pages", his deep, loping delivery is generally just right for the anthemics and opulence of the music, with the growls reserved for more emphatic moments.
He goes deep right out of the gate, with a Peter Steele-like moan gracing the sparse, broody "The Unrelenting Choir" that serves as the album's opening statement/intro, then gets more Jekyll and Hyde as the propulsive "Tainted Skies" kicks off. The album is sequenced in such a way as to take full advantage of this dynamic, which works quite effectively and makes for stirring peaks and valleys.
The peaks include the resounding, almost MOTORHEAD-ish rocker "Drink The Love of God" - even as its gnashing guitars are offset by lilting, "ooh, ooh" backing vocals - and the bracing "Time & The Vivid Ore". The album's heaviest, most metallic track, with Andersson's voice on full roar, "Ore"'s assertive chug is nevertheless quite catchy, with big hooks galore. "Saturn Coming Down" is just as infectious, though more dramatic and less bombastic.
As for the valleys, that's where the band really goes for the gothy gusto. "Hungry Waters" takes the TYPE O brood of "The Unrelenting Choir" and ratches up the melancholia - though it is again contrasted by "ooh, ooh" harmonies. "Reaping Song" sounds right out of the classic Nick Cave songbook with its blues meets torch song shuffle draped in synth/piano flourishes. Andersson's cleans sound their most natural and comfortable here and make the song really resonate.
More off-kilter is the delicate, haunting, yet rather grisly "Murder in Red". Its eerie electronics echo the theme from Stranger Things while its graphic storyline - "Gushing blood from what once were her eyes / She's joined the dead / Left behind, body's swarming with flies" - is studded with Dario Argento film references. Add some female operatic harmonies and arousing guitar lead break and you've got quite an intriguing package. The epic closing number "Poison Pages" revisits the horror film thematics and synth-tinged creepiness.
It's these tracks more than the others that take a few listens to wrap your head around. But do give them a chance, as they give Sub Rosa In Æternum a depth and daring that shows TRIBUTALION was more than up to the challenge of filling the considerable void Hulten left when he, well, left! It may be a different TRIBULATION now, but this is a band that has never shied away from change - though none quite so dramatic as this.
4.0 Out Of 5.0
