Band:	Tribunal
Album:	The Weight Of Remembrance
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	January 20, 2023
A review by:	RaduP

01. Initiation
02. Of Creeping Moss And Crumbled Stone
03. Apathy’s Keep
04. Remembrance
05. A World Beyond Shadow
06. Without Answer
07. The Path

Cellos and gothic doom metal and candles on the cover art might not be a surprising combination, but Tribunal burst onto the scene with a debut that's more diverse in sound than meets the eye.

First let's meet the folks behind Tribunal. Weirdly enough, neither of them seem to have been part of any other band, at least not a metal one. There's Soren Mourne who does bass and vocals, but perhaps most importantly is a classically trained celloist (and also painted the cover art). Then there's Etienne Flinn who does vocals and guitars and doesn't seem to be classically trained in any interesting instrument. Joining these two on The Weight of Remembrance are a bunch of guest performers, but most importantly there's Julia Geaman handling the drums. So far, other than this being released on 20 Buck Spin and being mixed/mastered by Markov Soroka, there's no name attached to it I could really namedrop, so The Weight of Remembrance having received the attention it received stands either on the feet on its own quality, or undiscovered nepotism. I'm leaning towards the former.

I don't wanna oversell the variety on display on The Weight Of Remembrance since the bulk of the sound is not too far from the standard of gothic doom. The cellos immediately bring My Dying Bride and Virgin Black as obvious points of reference, while the contrast between harsh masculine vocals and feminine cleans is such a standard in the sound that Draconian and Theatre Of Tragedy are within reach. Still, Tribunal put quite a bit of emphasis on the doom side of the sound. Straight from the start, there's a bombast to the riffing that harkens to some Candlemass or Isole inspired epic doom, and a melodious focus that balances the dark atmospheres and the more direct parts of the songwriting.

And though I do mention dark atmospheres, The Weight Of Remembrance is not an album I'd really call crushing, even in its heaviest moments, one whose atmosphere is rather elegantly dark while maintaining a very strong leaning towards occult doom as well, especially due to Soren's wailing vocals. Her vocals definitely being the better of the bunch, with Etienne's harsh ones often bordering more on shrieks than the growls usual for the genre. The cellos feel a bit underutilized, feeling more like a nice addition to spice up the sound rather than an integral part of the sound, and I'd love to hear more of that, but Tribunal write some really compelling doom just with the core vocals/guitars/bass/drums standard sound palette. Everything else, the cellos, the pianos, the organs, and various other symphonic elements, are a nice extra on top of that.

Tribunal does not deviate too wildly from the gothic doom standard, but they do more than enough to deviate to stand out from the crowd. And for a debut, there's not much more one can do to make me curious how the band would capitalize on that in the future, considering the massive potential they have now.