Tribulation - Where The Gloom Becomes Sound (Jan 2021)

[Nazgûl]

"TRIBULATION are pleased to announce their new studio album "Where the Gloom Becomes Sound", to be released via Century Media Records  (Worldwide excluding North America) and Metal Blade Records  (In North America) in January 2021.

"Where the Gloom Becomes Sound" was engineered and produced throughout the last months with Jamie Elton at Studio Ryssviken in Stockholm, Sweden, mixed and additionally produced by Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Opeth, Killing Joke, Pixies, etc.) at Psalm Studios, UK and mastered by Magnus Lindberg at Redmount Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The album's elegant cover artwork features a statue by Fernand Khnopff from the 19th century and can be seen above.

TRIBULATION commented: ""Down, further down, Where the Gloom Becomes Sound...", Anna-Varney Cantodea once sang in a previous millennium, in a different world. And further down than Down Below we went with this one. The album is a sombre one, filled with ghastly shadows and elemental magic – a mythological bestiarium vocabulum ranging from the desert sands to the midnight sun, from our murky prehistorical past to our potentially luminous futures. Figuratively, literally and musically. We worked together with producer Jamie Elton to create something wild and imaginative, something that would take the listener on a nightly adventure along with Fernand Khnopff's enigmatic sibyl on the cover and with all the gods and goddesses, nymphs and demons that we conjured up during the recording. As an icing on an already frosted cake we had the help of Tom Dalgety for the finishing touches."

Haven't really given the last one much of a look in. Though I would normally like the direction they took in sound after Formulas (in theory and the idea of it at least) those subsequent albums unfortunately never had the same lasting power as TFOD.

I'll still surely be checking this out when it is released.

[Scáthach]

Cool, I enjoy their recent stuff, a bit like a sweet spot between Watain and The Cult. The reference to Anna Varney Cantodea (Sopor Aeternus) has raised my eyebrow of interest too.

[ldj]

European tour (no Dublin date) with Bolzer and Molasses booked for January/February too, I've love to get away and see them but travel and gigs is looking unlikely even in 2021 at this stage.

[Squigs]

I saw this appear on someone's (extremely premature) end of year list. Definitely sounds a lot more interesting than anything since Formulas of Death, but Jesus the vocals are extremely limiting. They've expanded their sound in every other way over 10 years, but still just extremely one dimensional. Real offputting. Some great stuff on it though, will see if they grate less over time.

[Thorn]

It's going to be a top tenner for me also I'd say, gave it a lot of spins this year.

[Nazgûl]

On board with everything Squigs said. Even as far as a death/black metal vocalist goes, he's really one dimensional. It suited TFOD and even the follow up to that. But the further they progress into this goth rock kind of sound, the more the vocals stick out as being boring.

Some great stuff on it though, will see if they grate less over time.

I've tried fairly hard with them over the last few albums, but it hasn't changed over time.

[Squigs]

They're less invasively annoying as I found them on the previous two - might also be because I feel the songs are much more substantial. There was still an inherent death metal quality about TFOD that allowed that vocal style to work, but on those its felt like having Chris Barnes sing for The Cure in parts. This is still not ideal, but not quite so bad.

No band with this songwriting ability this long in their career should be content to be this one-dimensional. TFOD was ones of the best records of the 2010s for me.

[open face surgery]

Ya, its a beaut. Must lash it on.

[Mithrandir]

Haven't followed these lads since formulas came out, I was a big fan of the debut and then just couldn't get into the second one when they changed direction. But today I picked this up on a whim for cheap and I'm absolutely loving it, great record. It's winter where I am so perfect listening for this miserable weather. I'll have to revisit formulas and see if I'm more into it now, think I have the LP around in a box somewhere.

[Thorn]

Great album, must dig it out for a spin soon again

[Anvil]

Same, thought it was a great album on release.  Must listen to it again later. 

[Don Gately]

One of my favourite albums iof 21. Side A is peerless

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

New track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5s9oRU7D7U

Edit: Video version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae4qyBY0vF0

[Eoin McLove]

Decent. Made me pull out Children of the Night for the drive in this morning 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Yeah, tis decent alright. The clean vocals had me second guessing whether they were something new or that had already crept in on Gloom, so I ended up giving that proper time in full today for the first time. No clean vocals, but turns out it's a damn fine album in its own right. I only ever dipped in to check out a track here and there since Children of the Night disappointed me on its release.