Tribulation’s “Melancholia” Video Goes Full Dracula

Unlike Vince, I didn’t really get into Tribulation’s The Children of the Night when it first dropped. It felt light at its base; there wasn’t that real go-for-the-throat attack that I like in my blackened death metal. Then it became autumn, my whole life turned into Halloween, and lo and behold I fell headfirst in love with the record. Once paired with the right seasonal atmosphere, Children became one of my favorites.

And in the band’s latest video, they drive that point home like a stake to the heart. “Melancholia” reminds me thoroughly of Bram Stoker’s Dracula–not that it’s full of bats and capes, but that it’s a pitch-black psychosexual fever-dream full of pale figures and hungry forests. It captures the essence of gothic horror without ever once having to show us a castle or a cravat. In that way, there’s a real purity to it, as there was with the video for “Strange Gateways Beckon” — the band focuses on beautiful dark imagery rather than a jumbled narrative that their underground budget can’t accurately portray.

Check out “Melancholia” below. The band is still on tour with Deafheaven, so try and catch them at one of the dates listed here.