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Trouble

Trouble is an American doom metal band noted as one of the pioneers of their genre, alongside bands such as Candlemass and Saint Vitus. The band created a distinct style taking influences of the British heavy metal bands Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, and psychedelic rock of the 1970s. A critically acclaimed group, their first two albums, Psalm 9 and The Skull are cited as landmarks of doom metal. To date, Trouble has released eight studio albums. Although the band never officially broke up, Trouble was plagued by extended inactivity after their original singer Eric Wagner left in 1997. He eventually rejoined in 2000 before leaving again eight years later.The nucleus of the band had been vocalist Eric Wagner, guitarists Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin, and drummer Jeff Olson. The band is also noted for the spiritual nature of their early lyrics; their first record label, Metal Blade Records, marketed the band as "white metal" (in contrast to the rising black metal movement) in the 1980s.Formation and Metal Blade years (1979-1988)Trouble was formed in 1979 by Rick Wartell and was joined by guitarist Bruce Franklin, vocalist Eric Wagner, bassist Tim Ian Brown (not to be confused with lead singer of English band The Stone Roses), and drummer Jeff Olson. Ian Brown was replaced by Sean McAllister in 1983. Drawing from Black Sabbath for inspiration (with occasional nods to the psychedelic sounds of the late 1960s), the band used gloomy down-tuned riffs and spiritual, often openly Bible-inspired lyrics, which led Metal Blade to market the band as "white metal" as opposed to black metal. "I was brought up Catholic", vocalist and primary lyric writer Wagner explains in the liner notes of Psalm 9 re-issue (2006), "but you have to remember, back in the early 1980s, all the metal was kind of satanic, and I did not get into that vibe." Wagner has implied that Metal Blade actually came up with the term in the first place, which the band rejected: "I think it was more like Metal Blade trying to be cute or something, with everything [satanic metal\] being called black metal, why not call us white metal, which is a bunch of crap."The band toured throughout the Midwest during the early 1980s before signing with Metal Blade Records and releasing their eponymous debut (later referred to as Psalm 9) in 1984. The Skull followed in 1985 and reflected singer Wagner's struggles with substance abuse as well as growing turmoil within the group. This led to the replacement of bassist McAllister with Ron Holzner. Drummer Jeff Olson also departed. Reports suggested that Olson had left the band to become a preacher, but he had actually decided to pursue studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Dennis Lesh was drafted as his replacement for 1987's Run to the Light. In comparison to earlier recordings, the critics thought Run to the Light was "disappointing". Ted Kirkpatrick played drums during the Run to the Light tour before he went to form his own band, Tourniquet in 1989.Rise to popularity and hiatus (1989-1996)A three-year hiatus occurred before the band was snapped up by Rick Rubin's Def American Records for whom they recorded a second self-titled album (Trouble) in 1990 with Rubin producing. More experimental than previous efforts, the album (featuring new drummer Barry Stern, formerly of Zoetrope) expanded upon the group's tentative psychedelic notions within its traditional use of power chords.The group embarked on a year-long tour before returning to the studio. In 1992 Manic Frustration was released, delving into Beatlesque psychedelia and featuring some of Trouble's most aggressive, energetic performances ever. But after the album failed to connect with a wider audience, the band was ultimately dropped by their record company, which was experiencing financial problems.The band issued Plastic Green Head through the Music for Nations label in 1995 with the return of founding drummer Jeff Olson.Reunion and Simple Mind Condition (1997-2007)Even though Trouble had gone on an extended hiatus after Wagner's departure, rumors of an eventual re-formation persisted. From 1997 to 2000, Wagner was replaced by former Exhorder singer Kyle Thomas, who played four public gigs with Trouble.On January 26, 2002, Wagner, Franklin, Wartell, Holzner and Olson performed a short set in Chicago. Since that time, the band has played individual gigs throughout the Chicago area and headlined metal festivals in Europe and the U.S. while working on a new album. A concert in Stockholm, Sweden in 2005 produced the live DVD Trouble - Live in Stockholm.In February 2004, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters released a tribute album that paid homage to his metal roots. Entitled Probot, the disc featured various vocalists, including Eric Wagner, who sang on the track "My Tortured Soul". In the album's liner notes, Grohl wrote that buying Psalm 9 was like buying Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Holzner left the band soon after, to be replaced by Chuck Robinson, who played on the band's newest studio album, Simple Mind Condition, which was released in Europe on April 3, 2007 by Escapi Music. The band toured internationally in support of its release, but were not able to secure a U.S. release date for the album until over two years later. An unplugged album was later released through the band's website and, more recently, Escapi Music.New singer(s) and next album (2008-present)In May, 2008, it was announced that Eric Wagner has left the band and had been replaced by Kory Clarke of Warrior Soul. Jeff Olson also announced his departure from the band in July 2008 to continue with his own band, Retro Grave. Olson's last show with Trouble was, coincidentally, at a rock club called, "The End" in Memphis, Tenn. Olson was replaced by Wet Animal's Mark Lira for the band's upcoming U.S. East Coast tour.In a September 2008 interview with Rock N Roll Experience, guitarist Rick Wartell mentioned that Trouble has written "eight or nine songs" for their next album, and would begin recording it after touring. When asked which direction is the new music going in, Wartell replied, "I know people have said this a million times and I know you've heard this a million times, but it's pretty fucking heavy, let's put it that way! The music end of it that Bruce [Franklin, guitar\] and I are writing is getting heavier and heavier...it's getting heavier and then we want Kory to incorporate his style to what we are doing, that's basically all that we really want out of this."On November 18, 2008, Trouble announced, via their website, that they were in the process of writing songs for an album that would likely be released in the summer of 2009. A live bootleg recording featuring the new line-up was released via the band's website in 2008, then worldwide by Escapi Music about one year later. On March 4, 2009, Trouble revealed on their website that the new album would tentatively be called The Dark Riff. On September 9, 2010, the band announced that they are "getting ready for the studio now. [We\] have been making preliminary recordings and working out things in order to bring the best possible Trouble release." Bruce Franklin later said in a 2009 interview that The Dark Riff would not be the title of the forthcoming album.In February 2012, Kory Clarke left Trouble. Kyle Thomas, who was with the band from 1997 to 2000, took his place. Also in February, 2012, two original members of Trouble — vocalist Eric Wagner and drummer Jeff Olson — joined forces with the band's longtime bassist Ron Holzner in a new heavy rock/doom metal act called The Skull. According to a statement on the band's Facebook page, "The Skull is here to do one thing... rock you with the sounds and spirit of Trouble — past, present, future. The Skull is planning a thirty year celebration tour of Trouble's debut album, Psalm 9 in 2014.On February 16, 2013, Jeff Olson announced that he would be playing some keyboard intros on the new album. In May of 2013, it was announced that the new album, The Distortion Field, was scheduled to be released July 16th in North America and July 26 in Europe. This is the first release to feature Kyle Thomas, and was produced by Bill Metoyer. Shortly after its release, Rob Hultz of Solace and Godspeed joined the band as bassist.Music and imageTrouble's music lies with a traditional doom metal style, although their later albums showcase a more stoner-metal oriented style. Band members have cited influences by the early heavy rock bands of the 1970s such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Budgie, and Black Sabbath, Trouble have also incorporated elements of psychedelic rock to their style. Their music has been some of the slowest tempos being written at a time when NWOBHM and thrash metal bands were playing at increasingly faster speeds; Trouble songs generally move as fast as one of the slower Black Sabbath songs, like "Iron Man," "Lord of this World," or "Into the Void." While most slow songs by Iron Maiden or Saxon border into the area of ballads, all of the tracks on The Skull are as heavy as they are slow, with a distinctive fuzzy distortion and melodic, integral (rather than superfluous or ostentatious) guitar solos. The band could best be described as combining the riffs and tempos of Black Sabbath with the twin guitar attack of Judas Priest.Eric Wagner's lyrics deal with different themes, but the early Trouble albums are known for biblical references, especially because such themes were relatively uncommon in mainstream metal music of the 1980s. Other songs deal with social issues; "Bastards Will Pay," for instance, criticises politicians as hypocritical ("You tell us not to steal/ You tell us not to kill/ Then you tell us to fight for your country/ That's tell us to die"). Wagner's lyrics sometimes include a tinge of the hippie movement's melancholy and ideologies, with the term "peace and love" appearing on occasion. From Manic Frustration onwards, more references have been made to psychedelia, drugs, and hallucinations; "Hello Strawberry Skies" and "Mr. White" stand out as two examples.Unlike other metal acts of the 1980s, Trouble's members dressed in ripped jeans, tight t-shirts, and wore round sunglasses and had fringes and outfit accessories more characteristic of the hippie movement such as bandanas and knee patches. The band's live performances aren't overly concerned with visual interest; effects such as flash bulbs or pyrotechnics are absent, and movement on stage is kept to a minimum.ReceptionProblems with both the Metal Blade and Def American labels made it impossible for Trouble to achieve large commercial success. Even though their music videos were aired on MTV in both the U.S. and Europe, Manic Frustration was the only album that sold close to 100,000 copies. However, Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic wrote that "their preservation efforts nevertheless rescued metal's original blueprint from disuse, and carved it in granite for subsequent exploration by each new generation of doom bands that followed." It was said that Trouble took up where Black Sabbath had left off after their split with vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. Psalm 9 and The Skull are often cited as the cornerstones of doom metal. as well influencing other bands of the uprising metal movement during the mid-1980s. A famous story states that James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett from Metallica entered Trouble's stage after a concert, trying to figure out how their amplifiers were set to produce their unique sound.Trouble's first two albums were critically acclaimed and are respected in the metal scene. The following album Run to the Light, however, was said to be "disappointing," but a different direction was taken during the Def American era, when Rick Rubin helped the band to develop a new, unique style. The self-titled album gained "magnificent reviews in all the major heavy metal rags" and the psychedelic Manic Frustration was "critically lauded, cult-raved heavy metal masterpiece" The 1995's Plastic Green Head received good reviews, and "the album's songs also exuded a palpable sense of wary acceptance." However, Trouble was never thought of as a completely unique group; some critiques dismissed the band as a "poor man's Black Sabbath". Nevertheless, Trouble's influence on the metal movement is unquestioned.