The Vancouver duo Tribunal may yet be unknown to the wider world, but spellbinding debut album ‘The Weight Of Remembrance’ is poised to immediately change that. Steeped in the black velvet finery of Gothic Doom Metal, Tribunal weave dark tales of ultimate judgement, never-ending rain and forsaken despair.
Featuring classically trained cellist / bassist / vocalist Soren Mourne and guitarist / vocalist Etienne Flinn, the duo’s brick heavy classic Doom riffage borders on Death Metal heaviness, like My Dying Bride filtered through a colossal stained glass edifice. The sound is instantly familiar with nods to the 80s and 90s but never sounds retro or like mere homage. Rather ‘The Weight of Remembrance’ evokes the feeling of a painstakingly composed orchestral movement fit for a crumbling cathedral overgrown with moss. The duo frequently trade off vocals alternating between haunted wailing cleans, scathing black-metal style shrieks and dread-filled death calls.
Tribunal’s debut is an essential addition to the modern Doom canon, one which can expand in infinite musical directions from a base of crushing tragic heaviness and forlorn purpose. In that sense ‘The Weight Of Remembrance’ has the accomplished atmosphere of a band beyond their years in the scope and execution of its vision.
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Canadian two-piece Mares of Thrace deal in a brand of heaviness that draws as much from noise rock and hardcore as it does from the doom metal they’re commonly grouped with. Their three critically-acclaimed full-length releases have been punctuated with international tours, where their live show has gained a reputation for what Absolute Underground Magazine described as “[sounding] like there are at least five people onstage”.
Founded in 2009 by Trez (vocals, guitar) and Stef (drums), Mares released their debut The Moulting in 2010, where it topped national campus radio charts and was hailed by PopMatters as “superb”; they signed to Canada’s venerable Sonic Unyon Records shortly thereafter. 2012’s The Pilgrimage was produced by Sanford Parker (Voivod, Yob, Pelican) and praised by Pitchfork, Decibel, and Terrorizer, as well as receiving a nod from Canada’s prestigious Polaris Prize. After several North American tours, a hiatus followed; they re-emerged in 2022 with Trez remaining at the helm, and long-standing Mares collaborator Casey on drums, bass, and electronics. 2022’s The Exile was deemed by many reviewers as their finest work to date; Decibel praised its “nuance, vulnerability, and maturity”, and AngryMetalGuy called it “the sound of a band in its prime, not one just slinking back in from the cold”. North American and European tours with heavyweights such as KEN mode, Vile Creature, Lo-Pan, Couch Slut, and the Austerity Program followed.
