Review by Michael on October 20, 2024.

If your favorite Tribulation albums are The Horror and The Formulas Of Death you can calmly skip this review but the early fans have probably already turned their back on the Swedish guys because what they started on The Children Of The Night has evolved more and more into some highly melodic, dramatic, and less and lesser metal-style approach to set the darkness into music and find it actual pinnacle on Sub Rosa In Aeternum. 

Their last full-length Where The Gloom Becomes Sound already had a very dark, gothic, and sometimes more dark rock music vibe and here they dared to take another step forward to that terrain. First of all Johannes Anderssons´vocals have changed significantly in a lot of the songs. He sings in a very deep vocal line that sometimes reminds me of pioneers in the dark rock/dark wave scene The Sisters Of Mercy, The Garden Of Delight, or later Moonspell. Because the music is very calm, warm, and melodic these vocals match very well to all this. With this stylistic change, the band gives their songs a certain feel that makes the songs super accessible and sort of catchy. Not that they really are but superficially they appear so. If you dive deeper into them, you will recognize so many little things that you don't hear at first listening. As examples of that stylistic turnaround, you might check 'Murder In Red' (which evokes some kind of Alice In Wonderland feeling with keyboard lines) or 'Hungry Waters'. But sometimes the Swedes still let their roots shine through. 'Time & The Vivid Ore' is a typical dark rock song that also could have been on their latest albums since 2015. The vocals are pretty raspy and harsh and this one is very similar to the sound structure of 'The Wilderness' from Where The Gloom Becomes Sound where they worshipped Nick Cave. It is much heavier than a lot of the other tracks and this I would call the most logical step forward if they weren't so keen to go beyond their borders. A propos Nick Cave – if you like him you will probably like 'Reaping Song'. This one is really super epic with fantastic keyboards and a very surprising vocal performance. 

Another interesting thing is that Tribulation (and I already stated that on their last album) sound quite a lot like Ghost. 'Reaping Song' – the keyboards? The background chorus?? Do we have listened too often to “Infestissumam”? The same goes for 'Tainted Skies' and some riffs in other songs. Not that I want to criticize that, I am in fact quite pleased about that. And it isn't any Ghost-rip off in any way, so all fine, it just should be a little marginal note.  

But the dark rock direction is clearly in the foreground on Sub Rosa In Aeternum. 'I Takt Med Otiden' makes clear where the way will lead, hopefully. A fast rock song with a lot of Heroes Del Silencio-like guitars and cool Swedish lyrics. That's a really good one to close the album! The blackish outbursts are kept slightly minimal the whole time but I guess that not too many people would have expected going back to the roots in any way. At least for me the album is really fine to calm down and enjoy the autumn, become a little bit melancholic, and long for the darkness. 

Rating: 9 out of 10