Tribunal returns with their sophomore album, In Pentinence And Ruin, an elegy most grievous and forlorn, descending deeper into the solemn abyss of woe. 2023’s debut The Weight Of Remembrance set a high bar for the Canadians becoming one of the year’s most notable and praised doom releases, leading Decibel Mag to include the band’s new album in their annual list of most anticipated releases. Tribunal took their time and crafted an opus of enormous scope to echo evermore through halls long abandoned.

Having expanded into a fully fleshed out five piece band and live unit, In Penitence And Ruin has a wider lens of cohesion and maturity weaving together the widow’s wail of doleful strings, chilling keys and percussion that tolls like the iron bell of fate. These elements ornament the monolithic foundation of crushing dirge and funereal melodies hewn from the marrow of sorrow itself. The duality between the wistful, impassioned singing of vocalist / cellist Soren Morne and agonized growls from guitarist / vocalist Etinne Flinn bind with resolute tread and stride forth into darkness, traversing a path lit only by the pale glow of distant lament.

Tribunal hath wrought a requiem most dire where beauty and ruin become one and in doing have forged a second album beyond expectations, progressive in its embrace of the penitent and eminently listenable as a scripture of loss. Like ivy upon the tombstone, In Penitence And Ruin winds slowly but inexorably towards spectral grandeur and eternal oblivion.