Tribulation – Sub Rosa In Æternum
Release Date: 1st November 2024
Label: Century Media Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Goth Rock, Heavy Metal, Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: Ghost, Dark Tranquillity, The Sisters Of Mercy, Type O Negative, Moonspell, Unto Others.
Review By: Rick Farley
Sweden’s Tribulation have been on an ever evolving, fiery musical journey since forming in 2005. Originally started as a death metal band with flourishes of goth and black metal, showing small traces of their potential path early on in their careers. Each album thereafter bringing more creative levels of darkness to their sound. Not content just being a gloomy-flavoured death metal band, 2015 brings us the release of their third full length album, Children of the Night. A shadowy but infectious take on heavy goth rock infused with a menacing black metal spirit. A sound that proved to be where the greatness of Tribulation really began to shine. Elegant melodies mixed with eerie mystical atmosphere and sinister harshness skyrocketed the Swedes to the forefront of the metal world. The bands fourth album Down Below solidified a sound that was distinctly Tribulations own. Goth, black, thrash, death, and traditional heavy metal all gloriously mixed into a deadly brew of the underworld complete with amazing musicianship. 2021 showed a band again in transition, leaning more into driving, dramatic melodic death metal on Where the Gloom Becomes Sound. Personally, for me, these three albums mark a period where I can’t think of more exciting metal being released in that same frame of time by only one band. Each of these albums stand on their own as fresh, captivating pieces of songwriting.
Now 2024 and we are again presented with a record that is in a musical transition even larger than ever before. Sub Rosa In Æternum is the bands sixth album and is easily their most adventurous album to date. So where does this album fit in exactly, and does it continue with the bands streak of incredible music.
In short no, but still a possible yes. I sound confused, I know. This is a tricky one to say the least.
Sub Rosa In Æternum distinctly sounds like Tribulation musically, albeit with a much bigger emphasis on goth rock, post punk and some electronic elements. The ominous mood, thunderous melodies, dark rhythms, and inspired seventies rock style solos are all here in spades. The biggest change comes in the form of the vocals. Up until this point Johannes Andersson (bassist/vocalist) was solely a growler with a unique harshness just on the cusp of raspy black metal that fits the music like deep crimson on the fangs of the undead. The band went from essentially 100 percent harsh vocals to 75 percent clean vocals. A deepened goth voice that’s magnificence in its own right, however a hugely drastic change in sound. That in itself is enough to take pause. On one hand we’ve known the band were heading in this direction the entire time, on the other, is it too much too fast?
There are some incredible songs on Sub Rosa In Æternum. The pulsing, richly toned rhythm section of Tainted Skies, with twisty guitar riffs, sounds like it would have fit nicely on previous albums. Half clean and half harsh vocals, it shines bright with goth fuelled adrenaline. Saturn Coming Down stands as insanely catchy and sinisterly occult. An undeniable song of snake like riffs weaving around danceable hooks on the verge of being deceptively evil. The rumbling bass on the proggy Hungry Waters drives the song towards doomy hooks and a memorable, bursting chorus. The biggest departure in soundscape comes in Murder in Red. Electronic drums and dark wave melody mixed with their signature haunting sound is a concoction that works incredibly well. The dark balladry of Reaping Song with lush melodies and striking seventies rock solo is beyond mesmerizing.
To be perfectly honest with you, there’s really only two missteps song wise on this album. Opener The Unrelenting Choir is a slow building, threatening track that ends way before it’s fully developed. The potential to be a great song abruptly ended. The other is Drink the Love of God, it’s on the verge of being overly happy, upbeat pop which is just too much for this Tribulation fan. So, combine this with the minimization of harsh vocals, and I’m slightly disappointed based on the quality of the last three albums, however this is still a band that knows how to write great music. In the end this will be both unfairly hated and blindly loved all within the same group of fans. Worth checking for yourself.
(4 / 5)
