Apr 022015
 

 

(Wil Cifer provides some thoughts about the new album by Sweden’s Tribulation.)

Up until this point Tribulation has been a more fascinating creature on stage. The Children of the Night carries those wandering moments of majick the band summons on stage and transfigures them into a more solid form.

Often the album trades the traditional metal crunch for a more multifaceted organic tone that just happens to be played loudly. This is very much a guitar-centric album. The riffs are more than hammers that pound your head until you begin banging it, but tools to entrench the dark melodies into your hungering ears. On first listen, certain songs have the brighter epic metal tone that might cause Enslaved comparisons to abound, but the band is setting the stage for something more sinister lurking under the surface, while Enslaved sails their prog power longboats into Norse lore. Continue reading »

Nov 112014
 

 

Just minutes ago, Poland’s Behemoth posted an announcement on their Facebook page that they will be co-headlining a North American tour this winter with Cannibal Corpse, with support from Aeon and Tribulation from Sweden. The tour starts on January 28 in New Orleans and concludes on March 7 in Ft. Lauderdale. It includes six Canadian dates as well as stops in 21 U.S. states.

You will be delighted to know that the tour stops in Seattle, because whatever makes me happy necessarily makes you happy.

What a fucking pleasant way to begin the new year. General admission tickets go on sale this Friday and VIP tickets are on sale now — here. The full schedule of dates is as follows: Continue reading »

Feb 042014
 

Here’s Part 19 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the songs I’m announcing today, click here.

Yes, I missed adding an installment of the list yesterday. I blame my continuing delirium over the Seahawks’ victory in the Superb Owl. And yes, it’s February and I still haven’t finished this list. I blame metal, for giving us so much to like in 2013. Now, with those excuses out of the way, here are three songs I’ve grouped together because, well, because they rock. And they’re vocally vicious, too.

TRIBULATION

Not every song on this list comes from an album that ranked high on a plethora of year-end lists, but this next one does. The Formulas of Death deserves all the praise it has received from so many quarters. It is a highly ambitious, remarkably accomplished album, full to bursting with musical ideas and hell-bent on breaking free of any kind of death metal strait-jacket that might confine the band’s creativity. It leavens the raw and the raucous with the exotic and the atmospheric — it’s a long album, but it’s endlessly interesting.

Tribulation don’t go in for cheap tricks, but they sure do know how to get heads moving when the mood strikes them. In the “highly infectious” category, the two strongest contenders are “Wanderer In the Outer Darkness” and “When the Sky Is Black With Devils”. I picked the latter.  Continue reading »

Oct 162013
 

Herein, a collection of recommended music I discovered over the last 24 hours.

INQUISITION

Last night brought the premiere on three European sites of the title track from Inquisition’s forthcoming album, Obscure Verses for the Multiverse, which Season of Mist plans to release on October 29. Lambgoat then premiered it this morning for the North American market. Yet none of these sites chose to say anything about the actual song. It was just sort of “here’s a song, listen to it”. Maybe they know something I don’t know, i.e., that most people skip over words and go right to the music? Man, if that’s right I’ve sure been wasting a lot of time. But I can give it a shot:

Go HERE if you want to listen to “Obscure Verses for the Multiverse”. Continue reading »

Aug 012013
 

I suppose this is mainly a rumor, since there hasn’t yet been an official announcement, but that flyer up there sure looks official.

[UPDATE: it’s official now. The full schedule can be found at the bottom of this post.]

Two venues have so far reported dates for THE WILD HUNT NORTH AMERICAN TOUR, headlined by Sweden’s Watain and named after their forthcoming album, and featuring two more excellent Swedish bands, In Solitude and Tribulation.

As you can see, one of those two venues is in Detroit, and the second date that has surfaced is in Denver on October 18 at The Marquis Theater.

This has awesome written all over it. When we get the full schedule, we’ll post about this again. Seattle better be on there or I’ll throw a temper tantrum.

[Read on to see the full schedule.] Continue reading »

Feb 172013
 

I’m still catching up on new music unveiled last week that I didn’t find time to spotlight when I first heard it. In this post I’ve collected new songs (and a video) that I think are worth your time. It’s also quite a diverse collection of metal. The bands are Tribulation (Sweden), Woe (U.S.), Lorelei (U.S.), Sectioned (Scotland), and Man Must Die (Scotland again).

TRIBULATION

I’m exceedingly stoked for this Swedish band’s second album The Formulas of Death, which is due from Invictus Productions and The Ajna Offensive on March 1. Two songs from it have premiered to date, and they’re striking. The first one (“When the Sky Is Black With Devils”) I wrote about here, and the second one — “Wanderer In The Outer Darkness” — got its debut last week on CVLT Nation.

It’s a catchy, head-rattling mix of rocking riffs, a punchy rhythm section, scalding guitar leads and solo’s, and acid vocals. And the subdued guitar outro is a very pleasant surprise. These guys have definitely created something out of the ordinary. Can’t wait to hear the rest of these Formulas. Be kind to yourself and go HERE for “Wanderer In The Outer Darkness”.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribulation-Official/169889709720460
http://invictusproductions.net/ Continue reading »

Jan 012013
 

This post is the second part of a round-up in which I’ve collected items of interest I observed over the last few days. Part 1 is here.

FEN

Fen are a three-man UK band whose new album Dustwalker is set for release by the Code666 label on January 21, and today they debuted one of the new songs, “Consequence”. I’ll say up-front that apart from coming across an isolated song or two in the past, I’m largely unfamiliar with their previous works. But I’m mighty impressed with “Consequence”.

In this long song you’ll find a combination of sheer vocal ferocity and almost ethereal choral voices; jagged discordance and blasting coupled with majestic melodies and progressive instrumentals; gloom and doom paired with soaring atmospherics; a mix of the abrasive and the sublime. And there’s an awfully sweet bass line running through the song as well. Have a listen to this striking song right after the jump. Continue reading »