If you've hung around on pretty much any music-based website in the past decade or so, you know that revivalist trends in any genre are often a contentious issue. There is no need to rehash those arguments here, but I will state my opinion that revivalist bands of late have been producing much better music than those in years past. While the retro-thrash movement of the mid/late 2000’s produced Vektor and nothing else of note, more recent revivals in old-school death metal, psychedelic rock, and doom metal have produced some very, very high quality material. In the death metal realm, Tribulation’s 2009 debut full-length The Horror is one such notable album, and a follow-up was hotly anticipated for some time.
That follow-up is out now, and it’s not at all what anyone expected. Where The Horror was a straightforward Swedish death metal punch-in-the-gut, 2013’s sophomore effort The Formulas of Death is a dense, dynamic, and ambitious offering of atmospheric-but-riffy black/death metal.
To give you an idea of what you’re in for, The Horror was 32 minutes long over nine tracks, whereas The Formulas of Death is 75 minutes over 11 tracks. The longest track on The Horror was 'Graveyard Ghouls' at a flat five minutes, where The Formulas of Death has 'Suspiria' and 'Apparitions' at 10:21 and 13:25, respectively. The predecessor was focused mainly on kicking your ass with riffs, and while The Formulas of Death does have plenty of riffs, it has a bigger focus on the black, majestic, ritualistic feeling, hence the longer songs. Imagine the middle ground between Doom of the Occult by Necros Christos and From the Devil’s Tomb by Weapon, and you've got the right idea; it’s more focused on atmosphere than From the Devil’s Tomb, but emphasizes the riffs more than Doom of the Occult.
Furthermore, The Formulas of Death is a very demanding album, which is partially a result of its length but largely due to the complexity of the songwriting. Dare I call it progressive? Yes, I dare, although it doesn't shove the progginess in your face; the song structures are complex and nonlinear, with a few softer sections scattered among the heavy parts, but this is black/death metal first and foremost. While it should be readily apparent from the first listen that this is high-quality material, it will definitely take multiple listens for it to completely sink in. The multitude of riffs and the evil, grandiose atmosphere are a worthy reward for your undivided attention.
Despite their traditionalist roots, Tribulation have delivered something that is very much fresh and unique to the death metal world. The Formulas of Death is adventurous in ways many metal albums aren't, and it demands equal adventurousness from the listener. And, as in all things, the journey is its own reward, except this journey is filled with riffs.
