UMUR
"The Horror" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Tribulation. The album was released through Pulverised Records in January 2009. Tribulation were founded under the Hazard monicker in 2001 but changed their name to Tribulation in 2004. They initially played a fast-paced and brutal death/thrash metal style, but on "The Horror" things have changed.
Instead of the ultra fast-paced and technically well played death/thrash style of the "Putric Rebirth" EP from 2006, which was the band´s last release before "The Horror", Tribulation now leans more towards an old school Swedish type of death metal, but if you listen a bit more closely it´s soon revealed that "The Horror" isn´t your everyday retro death metal album. There are still strong ties to thrash metal, and the music is also generally played with great technical skill. Especially the latter isn´t always true on old school sounding death metal releases. Or maybe more correctly, it´s often not the focus.
The material is delivered with fierce aggression and often in an energetic pace, with snarling growling vocals, rhythmically varied beats and riffs, and blistering guitar solos. This is one of those performances where you can feel they really mean it. The sound production is suitingly raw, yet detailed and clear enough for all instruments and vocals to stand out. "The Horror" is a school example of how to make an album with old school credibility, yet with a different enough twist to it to make it stand out on the scene. The very convincing delivery and the well sounding production are also great assets as mentioned above, so a 4 star (80%) rating isn´t all wrong.