The Children of the Night

Okay, first off it is really hard for me to rank any album as 100% or perfect. Now, I hadn't heard of Tribulation until "The Children of the Night "came out this year. When I heard it, I was immediately blown away by the dark, melancholic atmosphere only to be compared to the first couple of Dissection albums. There's this weird, eerie vibe throughout the whole album that sends you to a dark Transylvanian type place. But it's only theatrical in that sense. But even though the aesthetic of the album seems fictional, the emotion behind it is so real which is why this album stands out to me so much. One more thing to point out on the subject of theatrics is their stage presentation. They dress up kind of gothic, or like vampires, which does suit the music and themes without being cheesy.

After listening to this album, I went back to check out their first couple of albums. In my opinion they were good, especially The Formulas of Death, but in no way as unique as this release. Compared to the first two full lengths, they have slowed down the pace a bit and introduced a lot more melody and atmosphere, a lot of which comes from different instruments such as xylophone and synths. Unlike their previous releases, there are no thrash or blast beats to be found on this album, but it doesn't lose any power or momentum. Despite Johannes Andersson's growled vocals, it is not simply just a death or black metal album. It also has elements of horror punk, psychedelic rock and goth as well. And even though his vocals are in the vein of death metal, the lyrics are very audible (not unlike Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection). There's also a cover song of The Cure's "One Hundred Years" on the limited edition version, which is really fitting to their style because they seem to draw inspiration from The Cure's dark, moody vibes.

Bottom line: check this album out. It deserves the recognition. "The Children of the Night" stands out among the hordes of generic, uninspired metal releases coming out. There is not a weak song on this album, but my favorites are "Melancholia", "The Motherhood of God", "Holy Libations" (which has an awesomely epic guitar solo), and one of two instrumental tracks entitled "Själaflykt." This is one of those albums where you have to listen to it from start to finish, like watching a good movie. It seems as this is the type of album that is going to separate fans because of such a stylistic shift, but I think that the shift was for the better because these guys are true musical geniuses and obviously have drive to create innovative music without being pigeon-holed into any specific genre. Hell, I can almost bet their next release won't be too similar to this one, and I hope it's not!