From Down Below - Live 80 Meters Deep by Portuguese dark metal masters Moonspell invites you on a memorable adventure. Recorded live at Grutas de Mira D'Aire - one of Portugal’s seven natural wonders, it showcases the band’s latest, much acclaimed album Hermitage (2021) at its primal best, live from inside one of the most impressive caves in Europe. The recording boasts a one of kind sound and visual sensation, with its heavy dose of cinematic flavor, unreal atmosphere and the encircling, resounding nature in its raw form. Tracks such as 'Entitlement', 'Hermitage' and 'Apoptheghmata' perfectly settle in with the album‘s unique environment.
As with the previous album, The Children of the Night, so too with Down Below. Tribulation has succumbed to change and momentum, but the Swedes didnt let it become them. They ve evolved (or are evolving) on Down Below. The evocative vibe of places frightful and things malign remains strong, as does Tribulation's roots as an inspired death metal act. What's changed is the approach and the inspirations affecting the approach. It's the type of record that will be remembered for decades. Not to be confused with an earlier Swedish band that produced a few crossover thrash releases during the early '90s, this new millennium group named Tribulation only formed in 2004, and spent the next few years experimenting with various extreme styles before settling on a speedy brand of death metal, embellished with horror-themed lyrics…
The main fault of this otherwise superior CD reissue is that there are only 31 minutes of music. Trumpeter Ted Curson, who by the early '60s had his own distinctive sound and an advanced yet accessible style, performs two standards ("Show Me" and "Falling in Love With Love") and four obscurities, with pianist Gildo Mahones, bassist George Tucker, drummer Roy Haynes, and (on four numbers) Montego Joe on conga. Curson, 27 at the time, is heard in top form on one of the very few of his sessions to be reissued on CD.