Doom Metal
Metal Blade Records
Release Date – June 16th 2023
Line Up:
Eric Wagner – Vocals
Bruce Franklin – Guitar
Rick Wartell – Guitar
Ron Holzner – Bass
Dennis Lesh – Drums
Tracklist:
1 – The Misery Shows
2 – Thinking Of The Past
3 – On Borrowed Time
4 – Run To The Light
5 – Peace Of Mind
6 – Born In A Prison
7 – Tuesday’s Child
8 – The Beginning
9 – Come Together
10 – The Misery Shows (Demo)
11 – Thinking Of The Past (Demo)
12 – Run To The Light (Demo)
Trouble came oozing out of Chicago in the late 70’s and took doom to new levels with their mix of Black Sabbath heaviness and Judas Priest twin guitar melodies plus original singer Eric Wagner, who sadly died in 2021, had the same Ozzy like wail and Halford range. Unlike most doom bands their lyrics were quite positive and verged on the Christian. Later they further developed their sound into a stoner/doom/psych hybrid but retained their huge down tuned guitar tone. They have carried on despite the loss of several members and released their latest album ‘The Distortion Field’ way back in 2013. ‘Run To The Light’ was originally released in 1987 on Metal Blade and they have decided to re-release it with bonus tracks and an updated mastering job for the vinyl edition from the legendary Bill Metoyer.
80’s style synth waves start ‘The Misery Shows’ before a guitar line and a creepy organ leads to a squally intro and they’re off with the guitars right up front. Huge and in your face Franklin and Wartell immediately show that they’re one of the most under rated guitar duos in Metal. The riffs are heavy and operatic with a dry punchy sound. ‘Thinking Of The Past’ is classic Trouble with another simple beast like riff and Wagner’s urgent wail before the slower funeral march intro for ‘On Borrowed Time’ brings a lead footed groove then the insistent kick drum of Dennis Lesh kicks off the almost thrash like title track. ‘Peace Of Mind’ is a stop/start chugger then ‘Born In A Prison’ rattles along on another chugging groove before the stoner rock of ‘Tuesday’s Child’ gets us to the final track of ‘The Beginning’ which has a folky start and Wagner crooning rather wailing then they blast forth on a monster of a chug fest. Have you ever wanted to hear Beatles music played proper heavy? Well Trouble give us ‘Come Together’ which is probably how it should sound! We also get demo versions of ‘The Misery Shows’, ‘Thinking Of The Past’ and the title track. The recordings are pretty poor but it’s interesting to see where the songs started and compare them to the actual recordings. This record led me to the self-titled album from 1990 back in the day and I’ve continued to follow them since. Trouble are unique in that they have their very own identifiable sound which is pretty hard to achieve in any genre of music. A stone cold classic re-released in various formats so there’s no excuse not to buy one!
Written by: Smudge
Ratings: 8/10
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