Tribulation - Down Below (2018) {Japanese Edition}

As with the previous album, The Children of the Night, so too with Down Below. Tribulation has succumbed to change and momentum, but the Swedes didnt let it become them. They ve evolved (or are evolving) on Down Below. The evocative vibe of places frightful and things malign remains strong, as does Tribulation's roots as an inspired death metal act. What's changed is the approach and the inspirations affecting the approach. It's the type of record that will be remembered for decades.

Not to be confused with an earlier Swedish band that produced a few crossover thrash releases during the early '90s, this new millennium group named Tribulation only formed in 2004, and spent the next few years experimenting with various extreme styles before settling on a speedy brand of death metal, embellished with horror-themed lyrics. Claiming to be influenced by '80s legends such as Autopsy and Morbid Angel, vocalist/bassist Johannes Andersson, guitarists Jonathan Hultén and Adam Zaars, and subsequently acquired drummer Jakob Johansson tipped their hand with 2006's Putrid Rebirth EP (released through indie Blood Harvest), then toured regionally before getting to work on their eventual full-length debut, The Horror, released in early 2009 through Pulverised Records. A sophomore effort, The Formulas of Death, arrived in 2013, followed in 2015 by Children of the Night, the latter of which saw the band eschewing the death metal approach of prior outings for a more occult-driven, goth, psychedelic, and traditional heavy metal oeuvre. The similarly progressive and theatrical Down Below followed in 2018 via Century Media.