Rarely does an album catch me completely off guard, but Tribulation’s The Formulas of Death, has pulled it off. After the successful release of The Horror, I was generally expecting a follow up of more of the same. So imagine my surprise when the album clocked in at over double the time of the prior release, and is filled with not just the typical Swedish death metal sound, but filled with black metal and hints of progressive metal, but without the mathematical and technical “showboating” that I cannot stand. They have without doubt, shown that they are indeed quite proficient musically, and have elevated their music to a true art form.

This is not an album to be listened to in part but as a whole, as the mood cannot be understated. Hell, the track “Suspiria de profundis” alone is worth the price of admission, setting up tension and filling my head with vile evil thoughts on an epic scale. This album was definitely meant to be played while knee deep in magiikal studies of the esoterically profound kind. In the dark. Alone.

Epic and spiraling  without meandering into boredom, Formulas is definitely an album that will take some time to really listen to, and digest, with substantial payoffs at the end. Moody and atmospheric passages leading into all out aural assaults, before subsiding into feelings of real dread, Tribulation has released what I feel will be one of the albums of the year.

Track listing:

1. Vagina Dentata

2. Wanderer in the Outer Darkness

3. Spectres      

4.  לילה   

5. Suspiria  

6. Through the Velvet Black

7. Rånda  

8. When the Sky Is Black with Devils

9. Spell  

10. Ultra Silvam   

11. Apparitions 

Genuinely unsettling and creepy, just like a GREAT old suspenseful horror film, it took several listens for me to fully appreciate the scope and brevity in its entirety. They have grown much as a band, and a tip of the hat to you good sirs for it. I can only imagine what future (burnt) offerings they will provide us with, after hitting this level of excellence on only their second album. Fuck me.

Without a doubt, Tribulation is a rising star, in a Swedish landscape littered with the corpses of diluted and copycat bands. Keep your eyes on this one, as they are destined for greatness.

ON TOUR with Watain and In Solitude, Oct-Nov. 2013.

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Highly recommended, 5 skulls.

Buy The Formulas of Death NOW!

By:  Sick Rick, Senior Journalist

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