Tribulation - 'The Horror'

Top-shelf death metal with thrash overtones is a worthy lesson in violence.

In Joseph Conrad's novel The Heart Of Darkness, Kurtz utters the words “the horror” before death; literature majors are still arguing about the meaning of his last words. You’ll be tempted to utter the same and a few profanities when you hear the haunted house music that opens Tribulation’s The Horror. Worry not: things get good if you can hold on for less than a minute.

Tribulation’s debut full-length sputters occasionally, but otherwise this is Grade A death metal. If you like fast and angry death that almost gleefully defies convention you will dig The Horror.

Tribulation describes themselves as a “deaththrasher squad.” The truth is it’s hard to know where stick the Swedes. The competing influences on this album would seem to hint at trouble: vocalist Johannes Andersson often sounds like Carcass vocalist Jeff Walker during the Heartwork era, while guitarist Adam Zaars channels Mercyful Fate guitarist Hank Shermann in his solos. You occasionally hear hints of Baloff-era Exodus, early Morbid Angel and God Dethroned’s leaner early work like Bloody Blasphemy. Thankfully, it doesn't amount to cut-and-paste metal. The band makes it sound fresh.

When this album is at full throttle — like the opening minute of “Curse of Resurrection” – Tribulation pulls the patchwork of different sounds together to create something special. With the exception of a few instrumental asides, the music is so good that it makes song titles like “Graveyard Ghoul,” almost forgivable. Prepare to hear more from Sweden’s latest worthy export.