'It's Liberating But it's Terrifying': Tribulation on Going Full Goth With 'Sub Rosa in Ęternum
Thursday, 06 February 2025
Written by Matt Mills
Photo: Damoìn Zurawski
Adam Zaars is sitting in front of what could conceivably be a Tribulation moodboard. When the guitarist joins Stereoboard’s video call from his house in Arkiva, Sweden, on the wall behind him are black and white photos of black metal musicians and gargoyles, underlined by a shelf with a blood-red candle on it. It’s as gothic, metal and extra as the music he makes, even if none of it belongs to him. “This is all my girlfriend’s stuff,” he tells us as he glances over his shoulder. “But we have very, very similar taste in these things.”
If you’ve ever heard Zaars’ band, that will make sense. He co-founded Tribulation in 2005 with former schoolmates Johannes Andersson (vocals/bass) and Jonathan Hultén (guitar), but they didn’t properly prick ears until 10 years later. Their third album, ‘The Children of the Night’, presented a gonzo fusion of black metal snarls and bouncy goth riffs, with lyrics inspired by horror films and Scandinavian folklore. Once the promotional photos did the rounds, depicting four face-painted ghouls next to a Nosferatu poster, the whole combination became too thespian to forget.
Another decade along the line, Tribulation have made their next big leap. They’re basically Fields of the Nephilim now. Last November’s ‘Sub Rosa in Æternum’ album doesn’t use goth-rock as an ingredient as much as it gorges on it. Single Saturn Coming Down throbs and jangles like a lost entry from The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’, whereas the percussion on Murder in Red smacks like Sisters of Mercy’s drum machine.
The most drastic shifts, though, are Andersson’s newfound, melodic baritone, present through every song, and a corpse paint shortage in the new round of pics. Some have received the ‘new’ Tribulation, bare-faced and clear-voiced, as a bold left turn. Look in the comment section beneath any ‘Sub Rosa in Æternum’ single and you’ll find stunned impressions: some accepting, others howling about betrayal. But the band are keen to present it as what it is — an accelerated evolution.
“It’s a natural next step, just a bigger one than we could have taken when going into writing new material,” Zaars states. “When we were writing this album, and when we were recording it, it really felt like we were scratching the surface of something. There’s a lot more potential. We’ve opened up new vistas, I guess, of opportunity for what we can do with this band.”
The guitarist is also quick to point out that the changes may not be as dramatic as they appear. Although Tribulation went without face paint in all of their new photos and music videos, it turns out they still bring it with them to the live arena. “It’s still there,” Zaars says. “For over 10 years now, we’ve done promo photos without makeup. I’ve seen a lot of people notice it this time around, but I guess it was in the combination: clean vocals and then this new promo photo comes and there’s no makeup, oh my god! But on the tour we just did [supporting Opeth across North America] we had makeup.”
It’s natural to wonder whether Tribulation’s quickened growth is a byproduct of Hultén splitting four years ago. Despite being in the band just as long as Zaars and Andersson, he was arguably their most iconic element — a key songwriter, but also a slithering live presence who was a highlight of their concerts. Though their previous album ‘Where the Gloom Becomes Sound’ came out after the guitarist quit to pursue a solo career, he still helped compose and record it.
“I’m not sure,” Zaars answers. “I don’t know where we would have ended up if he was still in the band. I would imagine that we would have done something similar, but we couldn’t replicate the four songs Joseph [Tholl, Hultén’s replacement] has written for this album: Hungry Waters, Tainted Skies, Time & the Vivid Ore, and Reaping Song. That’s a huge contribution.”
Hultén may have been a major cog in Tribulation, but Zaars wasn’t surprised by his exit. None of them were. “It could have happened a few years before it did,” he reveals. “And it almost did in, like, 2016. He seemed to not be very content with whatever we were doing. He was focussing more and more on his solo project.”
That readiness was apparent in how quickly the band dusted themselves off and carried on. Tholl stepped into Hultén’s leather boots almost instantly, and the foursome were back on the road within months. The refreshed lineup’s first release was the 2023 EP ‘Hamartia’, a statement of continued ferocity in their old guitarist’s absence that also prophetically ended with a cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s Vengeance (The Pact).
It featured purely melodic vocals and seemingly whetted Andersson’s appetite for more: the singer and bassist submitted ‘Sub Rosa in Æternum’ demo Poison Pages the following summer with nary a scream in sight. “It took us by surprise,” Zaars remembers. “At first, I liked it, but I wasn’t sure that it would be the way to go. But the more I listened to it, the more it felt OK. We already had some other material and we tried it out with that voice. It was a gradual process after he made that demo and it just felt good. It felt fun, even.”
Some things never change, though. Not only are Tribulation still donning their trusty face paint at concerts, but the supernatural and horror-flecked lyricism remains untouched on the LP. Murder in Red pulls influence from blood-soaked giallo cinema (as does its music video) and Reaping Song narrates a ghost story. Meanwhile, the Zaars-penned Saturn Coming Down in tribute to the titular Roman god.
“I’m very interested in the history of religion, and religion in general, and history in general,” he explains. “It’s basically what I study in my spare time and, when you’re writing lyrics, you have to write about what you care about in some way. Tribulation has become a free zone for indulging in that way of thinking: a less scientific way of thinking.”
The band will soon follow the release of ‘Sub Rosa in Æternum’ with a headlining European tour, which includes five UK dates in late February. Beyond that, though, the future is unclear. After evolving as noticeably as they have, there’s never been more possibility, a notion that both inspires and petrifies them. “You could do anything, but you still have to find something good and it still has to sound like Tribulation,” Zaars finishes, that macabre moodboard still looming above him. “It’s liberating, but it’s also terrifying.”
Tribulation Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue February 18 2025 - MANCHESTER Rebellion
Wed February 19 2025 - LONDON Underworld
Thu February 20 2025 - GLASGOW Slay
Fri February 21 2025 - BIRMINGHAM Asylum
Sat February 22 2025 - LEICESTER O2 Academy Leicester
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