Tribulation – Down below

With their last album, 2015’s “Children of the night” having received so much critical acclaim, Swedish band Tribulation had their work cut out with the new album to try and match the success of that album. When you listen to “Down below” it quickly becomes obvious that they rose to the challenge and didn’t just make an album as good as “Children of the night”, instead they’ve made an even better album.

The album is packed with melancholic and eerie melodies, some superb growling vocals, and powerful guitar riffs. It’s how they combine these elements that makes this album so good. The songs are heavy, but at the same time they’re extremely melodic and beautiful.

Growling vocals always divide opinions – some love them, some hate them, but the growling vocals here are really well done – you can hear the lyrics fairly clearly and the vocals also carry more emotion than is the case with many singers doing growling vocals.

I saw Tribulation supporting Arch Enemy recently and these songs sound even better live than they do on the album – which takes some doing to be honest as this album is so good. A fantastic album – highly recommended.

Track listing:

1. The lament
2. Nightbound
3. Lady death
4. Subterranea
5. Purgatorio
6. Cries from the underworld
7. Lacrimosa
8. The world
9. Here be dragons