MELANCHOLIA

"Melancholia" is an EP release by Swedish progressive extreme metal act Tribulation. The EP was released through Century Media Records in January 2016. Probably in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the band´s third full-length studio album "The Children of the Night (2015)". "Melancholia" is an EP where you get quite a lot of quantity for your hard earned money, as it features no less than 7 tracks and a full playing time of 42:07 minutes. The quality is another story, but I´ll cover that as we go along.

The EP opens with the regular studio version of "Melancholia" from "The Children of the Night (2015)". It´s a great melodic and hard rocking doom/death metal track, featuring irresistible guitar lead themes, hard rocking rhythms, a dark occult atmosphere, and blackened semi-growling vocals. The next track is a remix version of "Melancholia" subtitled "Steingrim remix", which to my ears is completely redundant, as it ultimately doesn´t sound that different from the original. Track 3 is another remix version of "Melancholia" subtitled "Author & Punisher remix" and this one actually has some merit, as it´s an ambient atmospheric version of "Melancholia", which sounds quite different from the original.

"Pay the Man" follows and it´s a The Offspring cover. I expected a melodic punk rock song, but Tribulation put their own spin on the track, which ends up sounding like a psychadelic jamming doom/death track. I nice little surprise, but nothing too exhilarating. It´s not exclusive to this EP either, as it was already featured as the B-side to the "Waiting for the Death Blow" single from late 2015. Then follow demo versions of "Holy Libations", "The Motherhood of God", and "Winds", which are all tracks featured in their studio versions on "The Children of the Night (2015)". The demo tracks feature professional recording quality, and they are well performed too, but to my ears a bit redundant if you already own "The Children of the Night (2015)".

So the quality and relevance of the material featured on "Melancholia" is a bit up an down. It´s certainly not an EP you can´t live without, and upon conclusion it´s what I´d characterize as a fan item. More casual listeners are adviced to leave this one alone and go purchase "The Children of the Night (2015)" instead. A 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted though.