Tribulation: A Dirge In the Gloom

Black and death metal have long been genres of extreme variety. The days where black metal could only be low-fi recordings of pure MAYHEM and DARKTHRONE worship are dead and buried, while death metal has grown atmospheric and technical arms and legs over the years before recently returning to its brutal, raw origins. And few bands have taken the traditional black and death metal blueprints and bastardised them so wonderfully as Swedish outfit TRIBULATION.

Taking a remarkably Gothic brand of blackened death metal with their sensational debut The Horror, the quartet have evolved at an incredible rate, their signature style now encompassing everything from psychedelia, Goth, traditional heavy metal and, of course, the black and death metal of their roots. Their most eclectic offering to date comes in the form of Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, just three years after the well-received Down Below – but what did the band achieve and learn over the course of the Down Below cycle, cut short by the COVID pandemic in 2020?

“The way in which we toured for Down Below in comparison to Children of the Night was quite different. On the Children of the Night album cycle we had five or six tours in North America, we went to Australia, Japan, and obviously in Europe – but for Down Below we only went to North America once, but we got around Europe more than we had before – we even went to Russia. Some of the shows we did were much bigger than we’ve done before as we toured with ARCH ENEMY and GHOST.” Begins founding guitarist Adam Zaars, before detailing how their live cycle – albeit limited – allowed the band to grow as artists.

“Growing as an artist is growing with experience, and the experience of playing live. But [the Down Below album cycle] also gave us new perspectives on composing and on TRIBULATION in general. It’s difficult, we are never on solid ground. We are never sure where we’re supposed to go, or where our path is heading – it’s a positive thing, but also difficult.”

So where does this growth lead to, then, for TRIBULATION‘s newest offering? Musically speaking, Where The Gloom Becomes Sound is a melting pot of ideas, taking brutalised doom and traditional metal riffs and psychedelic weirdness, and ramming it into their Gothic melancholy and blackened death metal ferocity in a manner that should sound like an utter mess, but in actual fact results in an incredibly spellbinding listen.

Conceptually, the record appears to be a bit of a mixed bag as well – on a surface level, at least. The title bizarrely comes from a lyric from darkwave outfit SOPOR AETERNUS & THE ENSEMBLE OF SHADOWS 1999 record Dead Lovers’ Sarabande (Face One) rather than any of TRIBULATION‘s own lyricism, while the cover art is a photograph of a sculpture by 19th century Belgian artist Fernard Khnopff.

“This title and the artwork are an expression of the feeling we had towards the music, not necessarily relating to the theme of the lyrics.” Zaars begins. “One day in the studio Johannes [Andersson, bass & vocals] brought in a poster with that photograph on it – we always try to make the studio more TRIBULATION-like while we’re recording – and we had it hanging in the control room. I’m not sure who had the idea [to use that photo as the cover] but it almost felt obvious. We had to use this photo, though, as the sculpture was destroyed during the war so we couldn’t take our own photograph. We just fell in love with her expression.”

So if neither the title nor the artwork relate to the lyrical themes of Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, what kind of lyricism do TRIBULATION utilise with their latest record? The band have never shied away from storytelling and narrative-driven lyrics, neither have they avoided philosophical explorations. What do the texts of their most recent offering have in store?

“What happened on Down Below happened again with this record. Both Jonathan [Hultén, guitars] and I were writing songs on our own without much communication, and on Down Below it turned out we were writing songs about the underworld. It wasn’t a concept album, and neither is this record, but the songs are connected with a common thread. The same thing happened with Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, but this time it had to do with the elements of Western esotericism and occultism – but that was what Jonathan was reading on an inspired by. I am a student on the history of religions, and I focussed on Indian religions. In India – as in Western traditions as well, sometimes – there is not four elements but five. So I was writing about Indian elements while Jonathan was writing on the Western traditions, and that become the common theme of the album.” Zaars explains.

“But the specific lyrics are more varied than that. In Remembrance, for example, is a Swedish folk tale about the Devil appearing as a fiddler, playing to the young folk of the village. They can’t stop dancing and eventually he leads them to Hell. Hour of the Wolf is about the witching hour, anxiety and the supernatural elements of the night, while Leviathans is about water spirits and Inanna is based on the earliest mythological text we have – The Epic of Gilgamesh.”

Where The Gloom Becomes Sound has very much been an album of growth and learning for TRIBULATION. With lead songwriter Hultén announcing his departure from TRIBULATION at the end of 2020, Zaars is set to step into his shoes and lead the band, from a writing perspective, moving forward. So what lessons from this record will he be taking into album six?

“The main lesson I learned – I am a very slow writer!” Zaars laughs. “Our approach to song writing has always been that anything can happen. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a pop song – verse, chorus, verse, chorus – or follow any formula. Trying to compose a song with the intention that anything could happen after this particular riff is both a great creative tool and something very difficult to navigate – I’ve learned it’s very difficult to balance that.”

With a new era of TRIBULATION on the horizon and the ever-present spectre of COVID looming over the music industry, how does Zaars feel looking to the future of the band?

“COVID puts everything in a new light. To be able to keep the band running on something more than a hobby level, you need to keep everything moving forward. The future of TRIBULATION really depends on how the virus progresses, how vaccines work and so on. Having a heavy metal band is not an easy thing… If we’re ever able to play live again, we don’t know where we can go, which venues will still exist, what to expect from anything. I have a family, I have to provide, and you can’t put the time and effort a heavy metal band requires into something that just isn’t working. But I’m still feeling positive, I’m willing to put in all the effort and time, and I feel positive about the future of TRIBULATION, in spite of everything.”

Where The Gloom Becomes Sound is, unquestionably, TRIBULATION‘s strongest record since the release of their cult-classic debut. Conceptually a fascinating album, it is crammed from start to finish with a captivating blend of brutality, atmosphere and psychedelic weirdness, while also serving as Hultén‘s swansong from TRIBULATION. A dirge in the gloom for a band losing its mainstay songwriter, but also a promise of great, new things to come in the future, Where The Gloom Becomes Sound proves to be a stunning start of 2021’s catalogue of heavy music.

Where The Gloom Becomes Sound is out now via Century Media Records. 

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