Interview with Tribulation 2009

By Bradley Smith

Your debut album The Horror has just been unleashed upon the blood thirsty underground.  What is your vision for this album and what are you trying to achieve with it?

Our vision has pretty much already been manifested, as far as only the CD is out.

We wanted the album to strike with no mercy and to leave an immediate impact on the audience. It has even done so in a broader way than we first though was possible, a combination of quality and good promotion I guess. Though we see the LP, which is hopefully out soon, as the ultimate artistic expression for us. That one is the version people that really care about it really should own. The music is one thing, but the whole package is always something special.

Swedish death, notably the Stockholm style has left a huge impact on the underground scene.  What do you think are the telltale signs of this “sound?”  What sort of unique ideas did the Swedish artists bring to the genre and what legacy do you think the style has left on the underground?

They obviously left a deep wound in Death Metal, as you can see just by looking at which bands that are still the biggest ones, then you immediately think about bands like Dismember. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the typical Sunlight sound. Even though I love a record like "Left Hand Path", I'm still a bigger fan of Nihilist, Morbid and Treblinka. The best Swedish bands had something special that I can't really determine, and a demo tape like "December Moon" is just pure magic for me. They dealt with something not of this world as it seems.

While we are on the topic of Swedish bands there always seems to be a ton of new and interesting bands coming out of the Swedish scene.  What bands left the biggest impact on your development as a musician and what are some current bands that are turning heads from Sweden?

The biggest influence that I have got when it comes to Swedish musicians is Yngwie J. Malmsteen, but I guess that you meant in extreme metal. And in extreme metal I can only say Jon Nödtveit, what a brilliant guitar player. When it comes to favorite Swedish bands from the past I have to say Dissection, Morbid and Treblinka. Nowadays there are a few bands from Sweden that really have something to give, like Necrovation, Corrupt and Portrait.

Not only do members compose deathly music but also they are involved with Necromantic Art.  How can death and horror be unified with the aesthetics of romanticism?  What projects have you put this creative force towards?

Necromantic Art is about seeing Death through an aesthetic and artistic perspective, and seeing the romantic aspects of it. It's about the strangely beautiful and romantic things in it, something that has always held my attraction. It is about finding darkness in art, the same darkness that we are expressing through our music and the same darkness that can be found in a movie like Nosferatu. It's nothing artificial though, it's very real. The things that are beautiful is always in the eye of the beholder, of course, and in my case the beauty lies alot in the mystique and inevitability of Death.

Darkness and Death has such a compelling attraction to many people.  What do you think inspires this draw towards imagery and themes of death and horror?  Why do you think it has such a strong hold on the members of the metal community?

I don't think that most people in the metal community are interested in the same darkness that I am. It's not about the theatrical things and it's not about the taboos in it, nor is about anything being "cool" about a skull or something like that.  People use it as something to shock with, or whatever, but that's not why we use it. It's about the beauty and perfection about the aesthetic side of it, and about the inspiring energies surrounding it.

As a fan of death and horror I am a little disappointed by Horror movies these days.  What do you think has gone so wrong with the genre?  What are the key ingredients to a great horror movie?  Are there any horror movies these days you think “got it right?” 

It's not hard to get disappointed nowadays no. I seek different thing in different kinds of horror movies. I can watch a cheesy horror/sc-fi b-movie from the 50's and think that it's really good, even though it hasn't got the darkness that I seek when I watch a movie like Nosferatu, or say The Seventh Seal. The best ones are always in some way supernatural in a realistic way, and they are always very dark.

   The first movie that comes to mind is a movie that I'm not even sure is considered a horror movie, "The Others" from 2001 starring Nicole Kidman. I kind of got somewhat frightened when I saw it, for the first time in many, many years. Though this unfortunately didn't last the whole movie, but that's the closest thing I can come up with being anything resembling a decent creepy movie.

These days the two most dynamic forces within the underground are Black Metal and Death Metal.  Which style do you think is better and why?  What aspects of each do you think motivates and attracts its listeners?

I don't see any of the genres as the best one, I only find the qualities in the bands. Both of them as genres generally suck, but in both you can find some of the best bands in the world.

The best band right now would be Funeral Mist, without a doubt.

If you could create a world from the depths of your imagination what would be some major features of this world?  In other words, what would a world of your fantasies and dreams look like?

I actually had a dream about this place for about a year ago. It's quite hard to describe the environment, but it sort of looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie. It was all very grey, yet it had the brightest of colors. And I remember that robust and crooked yet leafless trees were bleeding through the bark in a deep red color.  One tree in particular was hanging over a pitch black lake, it was all very beautiful. It was a very romantic world, and again dominated by the aesthetic side of things. There was also a cabin with some sort of blood splattered everywhere and I remember feeling at home.

   I guess that we'll see when we move on to Transylvania.

When playing live as Tribulation what can we the audience expect?  What differences do you feel there are between the material on the album and when it is performed in a live environment?  What are your favourite songs to play live and why?

People can expect a tight and well played set of fierce Death Metal. We put on a show that is real for us, and that makes us able to express the music for real. The material on the album was written to be played live, so there's not really that much that differ. I'm not sure that I have a favourite one really, they are all great!

What near-term future plans do you have for Tribulation?  Can we expect any shows or new recordings to come along soon?

The first thing that is going to happen is that we'll go on tour with Vital Remains among others. After that we'll play live as often as we can, playing the songs on the album.

When we feel that we have played enough we'll record a new album.

I will leave any final horrifically romantic thoughts to you. 

"We take your weak resistance, throw it in your face. We need no introduction for mass-annihilation."