Tribune – Elder Lore/The Dark Arts

Today I am pleased to present you with “Elder Lore/The Dark Arts”, the second full length album from British Columbia’s Tribune. Their goal is to make challenging, yet accessible, metal music. I have to admit that I was pretty instantly smitten with their genre blending mix of thrash/death/prog. I had heard some clips (probably on YouTube or MySpace), and wanted to pick up the album when it came out a few weeks ago, but I could not find it in my usual places (iTunes or Amazon). Luckily for me, Asher Media Relations came to my rescue and hooked me up.

“Elder Lore/The Dark Arts”, as I mentioned above, is a beast of mixed breeds. The music is mostly thrash in nature, but it does have some proggy elements. The vocals come in both harsh and clean flavors. There are harsh death metal style vocals as well as clean, melodic vocals. Do not start thinking this is some Swedish death metal knockoff, it is nothing like that. The music is much more thrash, and some of the riffs would not be out of place in a doom/stoner band. Some of the harsh higher pitched vocals remind me Acid Bath screams, which is extremely cool, and some of the clean vocals remind me of Witchcraft.

The production on “Elder Lore/The Dark Arts” is just one little notch below my ideal, perfect sound. The album sounds terrific, don't get me wrong, but if this was just a hair crisper and slightly punchier on the drums/bass I would be doing cartwheels in the street (which would be something to see, let me tell you lol.)

If you are searching in all the usual places it is currently a little difficult to come by the album, but while writing this I was able to track down Tribune’s Bandcamp page, where you can pick up your choice of physical CD or digital download. Thus far, this would be my album of the week, so check it out and support the band. Have a listen to the song “The Succubus” below: