Nightfly Q: When is a death metal album not a death metal album? A: When it’s Tribulation’s “The Children Of The Night”.

“The Children Of The Night” is the third album from Swedish act Tribulation. It’s been kicking around for quite a few months and I’m only just discovering its wonders late in the year. Getting back to my opening question, it would be too simple and perhaps an injustice to lazily call this a death metal album. Sure, there are elements, but interestingly no blastbeats, but the raspy vocals are as much black metal for starters to my ears. There are black metal touches in the music and gothic too but it also has a traditional 80’s metal vibe. Let’s throw in some prog touches too.

Where this album really shines is in the songwriting department. The music’s not particularly flashy but the melodies are stunning, some of the best I’ve heard all year. While it doesn’t sound like it, I’m reminded of “At War With Reality”, last year’s startling album from fellow Swedes At The Gates. What it shares with that is a strong melancholic vibe to the melodies that lifts it well above the average. This is down to the guitar duo of Jonathan Hulten and Adam Zaars. These guys are such tasteful players and every speed obsessed novice guitarist should be made to sit down and listen to this to see what really makes a great player including some incredible solos. They complement each other perfectly as they expertly weave their parts together. Adding to the overall gothic feel is the use of organ and piano which works very effectively. The compositions also benefit greatly from plenty of light and shade against the heavier riffing.

“The Children Of The Night” is a very mature piece of work and deserves a listen from anyone with even a passing interest in metal as it has a lot to offer to even those who usually steer clear of the more extreme forms of the genre. Approaching the end of 2015 and thinking about the best albums of a great year in metal this is going to be up there in my top 10 for sure.

UMUR "The Children of the Night" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish progressive extreme metal act Tribulation. The album was released through Century Media Records in April 2015. Since forming in 2001 under the Hazard monicker (they changed their name to Tribulation in 2004), Tribulation has gone through quite the musical development, starting out as an aggressive death/thrash metal act on the "Putrid Rebirth (2006)" EP, changing their sound to a more old school death metal oriented one on their debut full-length studio album "The Horror (2009)", and then morphing into a rather adventurous progressive and psychadelic tinged death metal act on their sophomore studio album "The Formulas of Death (2013)". So naturally it´s not easy to predict the musical direction on "The Children of the Night"...

...but what we have here is yet another change in musical style. The band still uses death metal elements (most obvious in the use of growling vocals), but I´d probably call this progressive extreme metal over death metal. The use of melody is also very prominent. The many melodic and very well played guitar solos deserve a mention, but there is also use of piano/organ/vintage keyboards, vibraphone, and xylophone in the music, which provides it with a nice organic touch. I´m sometimes reminded of "Wildhoney (1994)"-era Tiamat, although Tribulation is generally much harder rocking than their fellow countrymen, but an act like Hail Spirit Noir could also be used as a reference (I actually hear a bit Amorphis too).

I feel like Tribulation is closer to finding a unique sound on this album than on any of their previous releases (although "The Formulas of Death (2013)" is also a pretty original sounding release), or at least to finding a sound which they feel comfortable playing. It shows in the conviction of the delivery and the quality of the compositions. In many ways "The Children of the Night" is a less complex album than it´s predecessor, but somehow it still feels more progressive. The fact that the instrumental part of the music doesn´t feature many death metal elements anymore, also makes "The Children of the Night" a very different sounding album to it´s predecessor.

One of the things I had a slight issue with on "The Formulas of Death (2013)", was the fact that the growling vocals weren´t placed high enough in the mix, which occasionally provided them with a monotone sound. They simply didn´t stand out as anything special, but that has been changed on "The Children of the Night", which features fully intelligible growling vocals placed high in the mix. To my ears it makes a world of difference and the impact of listening to the vocals is huge compared with what the vocals gave to the music on the predecessor. The music is generally more catchy too, although the album still requires some spins before all tracks settle.

"The Children of the Night" features a well sounding production. It´s raw and organic, but also highly detailed, which makes it easy to hear all instruments and vocals in the mix. So "The Children of the Night" is through and through a high quality release and it´s yet another testimony to how innovative and adventure seeking Tribulation is. With their stylistic history I won´t be surprised if their next album sounds vastly different from this one, but until then "The Children of the Night" is highly recommedable to fans of progressive extreme metal with great melodic flair, yet still featuring a credible amount of darkness for those who crave that. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.