Tribulation Bring ‘Lady Death’ to Life in Chilling New Video
Sweden's Tribulation are on the forefront of a burgeoning new sound that's sprung up in recent years, fusing blackened elements with more traditional heavy metal and goth rock. With Down Below set to swarm 2018, they've issued a chilling video for the new single, "Lady Death," which appears on the forthcoming record and as the feature track on a freshly released EP of the same name.
The visual aesthetic of Tribulation is paramount to further understanding their bat-winged sound. There's cryptic elements at play in their latest video, which unsurprisingly centers around images of night and death. Winds howl during the opening moments of "Lady Death," crescendoing until a dissonant guitar riff shatters the atmosphere. The tempo is upbeat, driven by unrelentingly rigid drum work, which offers a harsh counter to the loose, jangling melodies and leads that wash over the chorus.
"You can fit a lot into the space that we're creating, but it' always got to be of the right substance. It's all a matter of balancing on the edge and not falling," guitarist Adam Zaars said about Tribulation's new record. "I think that's often what we do, actually. We push it all quite hard in many different directions and try not to fall over, be it cheesiness, pretentiousness or whatever. As an example, we have been writing about the vampire theme for a while now, a theme that is very, very cheesy if you do it in the wrong way (which to me is pretty much every way). Vampires and folk influences, it sounds like a pretty horrible mix, but it's all very dear to us and so we treat it with respect. We try the same approach in music, we take it all very seriously and hopefully that works."
Tribulation will be among the first to release new music in 2018, dropping Down Below on Jan. 26 through Century Media. To pre-order the band's fourth album, go here. While you're at it, you can snag the Lady Death 7" EP which is out today (Dec. 22).
See Tribulation in the 20 Best Metal Albums of 2015