Tribunal – In Penitence and Ruin
Tribunal – In Penitence and Ruin
20 Buck Spin
Release Date: 18/04/2025
Review by Rory Bentley
9/10
You know what I love on a sunny day while I’m sipping a cold beer in the garden? Really depressing Doom Metal with evil growling vocals. Actually, it’s a Kylie Minogue playlist, but it’s my job to review Metal, so what ya gonna do? Fortunately, Vancouver gloom-merchants Tribunal are so darned good that this sophomore album is an absolute blast to listen to despite not exactly being full of the joys of spring. The fact that it’s on the don-daddies of underground Metal labels, 20 Buck Spin, is normally a mark of quality in itself, but a record this good would have found its way to me no matter what label it was on. Except Fuelled By Ramen probably.
Doom is fast becoming my favourite Metal sub-genre these days, despite rarely involving beatdowns of gang vocals about ‘family’, but I don’t always get on with the more Gothic-leaning bands. Sometimes when the spliffs get switched out for corsets and crushed velvet, it gets a bit too flouncy for me. My Dying Bride in particular, walk an incredibly fine line between crushing and cringeworthy for me, as much as I respect their legacy and influence. On the flip side Paradise Lost can do no wrong in my book, sounding fly as fuck even when violins and Eldridge drama are cranked up to the max. Tribunal on this release are firmly in the fly as fuck camp.
For a kick off, the guitar tone is absolutely disgusting throughout, going toe to toe with any putrid Death Metal dealer on 20 Buck Spin, and when combined with the haunting cello work of co-front person Soren Mourne, makes for an irresistible sonic backdrop to build these expansive yet surprisingly catchy compositions on. Within the first 90 seconds of the album, you get a feel for everything that makes the band great, on ‘Incarnadine’. In addition to the riffs and strings, the thrilling dynamic between Mourne and guitarist and other co-frontperson Etienne Flinn is on show from the get-go. Mourne has a dramatic, expressive, and impassioned croon that drips with anguish, and Flinn counters this with a monstrous Death growl that makes the blood run cold. Rather than a cliched ‘beauty and the beast dynamic,’ it’s more like two beasts, but one of them’s employing melody while they’re gnawing your face off, and the other one’s Nick Holme on steroids.
This is a core sound I would happily listen to regardless of song quality, but the fact that there are so many memorable moments bursting from every track makes this an exceptional release. The spidery guitar lines on ‘A Wound Unhealing’ are worthy of Tribulation at their most spooky, and the chiming bells that follow are the Doom go-to that never fails. Meanwhile, the killer grooves and squealing harmonics on ‘Angel of Mercy’ are immensely satisfying, again further enhanced by a dramatic cello arrangement that really makes the main hook pop.
Despite never veering from the relentlessly morose, the band add enough sonic variety throughout that it never feels too samey or leaves me checking my watch. There’s just enough shifts in tempo and timbre to keep the listener guessing. ‘The Sword of The Slain’, for example, goes from a thundering mid-paced Bathory gallop to hellish Funeral Doom and back again seamlessly without feeling either too rushed or too meandering. Elsewhere, ‘…And the Thorn-choked Flowers Grow’ reaches for the lofty heights of Epic Doom, swirling with apocalyptic drama as both vocalists tear their throats to shreds, howling into the abyss of their own making.
Sealing the deal and nailing the album on as a genre classic is the gorgeous ‘Between the Sea and Stars’, which is so full of grief and sorrow that it makes Warning sound like Less Than Jake. The cello work is sublime, and the elegant keys of Dallas Alice are sprinkled over the song like drops of rain following a raging storm. Mourne’s singing on this one is particularly impactful, showing a captivating fragility previously masked by her more animated, pained performance elsewhere.
I don’t imagine that Vancouver is as bleak and grotty as the Northern towns that spawned the artists that inspired Tribunal, but you wouldn’t know by listening to this thing. This is an album of truly exquisite Doom and a must for fans of that classic Peaceville sound, as well as those that want a bit of muscle with their misery.
‘Incarnadine’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Incarnadine
02. A Wound Unhealing
03. Angel of Mercy
04. The Sword of the Slain
05. Ruin
06. The Penitent
07. Armoured in Shadow
08. …And the Thorn-choked Flowers Grow
09. Between The Sea and Stars
LINKS:
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