Tribulation
August 27, 2016
Troubadour- Los Angeles, CA
Swedish death metal band Tribulation made a short headlining tour across the USA. After making a quick stop at the Psycho festival in Las Vegas, Tribulation made their first full stop at the Troubadour in Hollywood for a more intimate setting. Even though the band is still relatively new to the metal scene, the band had a nice turnout of fans which ended up causing a sold out show! In 2015, the band released their third studio album The Children of the Night and were still actively touring for it and will soon begin work on their fourth album. Fans were ready for Tribulation as they could be heard cheering the band’s name just before the show started.
The lights went out and the crowd cheered as the members of Tribulation came out sporting their makeup and dusty clothes to make themselves look like corpses that had risen from the ground. The first song for the band to play for their children of the night was Strange Gateways Beckon, the first track from the new album. Frontman Johannes Andersson would unleash his death metal growls into the audience as they pushed to get closer to the band. Guitarist Adam Zaars was the most mobile member of the band as he not only displayed his musicianship, but he would dance on stage with ballerina-like movement to make his playing and himself a sight to be seen. Sometimes he would dance a little too hard as at one point he managed to slip on stage, but shrugged it off and continued playing and dancing the whole show.
Melancholia and Winds were the next choice of songs and were two more tracks from the new album. Fans were primarily treated to songs from the band’s second and third album. Only one song was played from their debut The Horror album which was Seduced By the Smell of Rotten Flesh. Fans loved that track as they got wild and a mosh pit formed in the middle of the venue as it had remained quite calm with moshers. Other tracks that haunted the venue were The Motherhood of God, Randa, and Ultra Silvam. Guitarists Adam Zaars and Jonathan Hulten displayed their musicianship even more by taking turns performing haunting guitar solos that you could almost dance to, yet still have a feeling of terror. The night was coming to an end and Tribulation came out for some encore songs, the first being In the Dreams of the Dead. Fans were happy to have them come back out and continued to cheer and head bang along to the music. Andersson thanked the audience for coming out and ended the night with When the Sky Is Black With Devils. Quite the lengthy song at almost seven minutes filled with amazing guitar playing, especially the guitar solos. Tribulation finished the show to a very satisfied audience and can only hope that they’ll come back again once the new album is released.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
