Trouble: Американдық қара метал тобының тарихы

American doom metal band

Trouble is an American doom metal band from Aurora, Illinois, formed in 1981. They are often considered one of the pioneers of doom metal, and have been referred to as one of the genre's "big four" alongside Candlemass, Pentagram 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 1960s. Trouble's first two albums, Psalm 9 and The Skull, are cited as landmarks of doom metal. To date, they have released eight studio albums. Although never officially disbanded, they went inactive after original singer Eric Wagner left in 1997. He rejoined in 2000 and left again eight years later; he was first replaced by Kory Clarke and then by current vocalist Kyle Thomas, who had also filled in for Wagner during his initial absence from Trouble. Eric Wagner died in 2021.

Trouble was formed in 1981 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,

The band toured throughout the Midwest during the early 1980s. On February 5, 1983, the band recorded Trouble Live in Chicago. Drummer Jeff Olson mailed the cassette to Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records and the band landed their first record deal. Trouble released their eponymous debut (later referred to as Psalm 9) with Metal Blade Records in 1984. but he had actually decided to pursue studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree cum laude in Film Scoring. Dennis Lesh was drafted as his replacement for 1987's Run to the Light.

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. 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.

In May 2008, it was announced that Eric Wagner had left the band and had been replaced by Kory Clarke of Warrior Soul.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 had 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 into 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 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 did 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 2013, it was announced that the new album, The Distortion Field, was scheduled to be released July 16 in North America and July 26 in Europe. This was 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 a bassist. In 2014, Wartell announced that Trouble had begun working on new material for the follow up to The Distortion Field. No news or progress on the album had been reported until July 2022, when the band entered the studio to start recording it. Original Trouble singer Eric Wagner died of complications from COVID 19 on August 22, 2021 at the age of 62.

Trouble's music lies with a traditional doom metal style, although their albums since 1990s Trouble 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. While most slow songs by metal bands border into the area of ballads, all of the tracks on Trouble's second album 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, such as their debut Psalm 9, are known for biblical references. Especially because such themes were relatively uncommon in mainstream metal music of the 1980s, Trouble were then often classified as Christian metal. Other songs deal with social issues; "Bastards Will Pay", for instance, criticizes politicians as hypocritical. From Manic Frustration onwards, more lyrical references have been made to psychedelia, drugs, and hallucinations; Unlike other metal acts of the 1980s, Trouble's members dress in ripped jeans, tight T shirts, wear round sunglasses and have fringes and outfit accessories more characteristic of the hippie movement such as bandanas and knee patches.

Problems with both the Metal Blade and Def American labels made it impossible for Trouble to achieve large commercial success. 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." as well influencing other bands of the uprising metal movement during the mid 1980s. A famous story states that James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of 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", Nevertheless, Trouble's influence on the metal movement is unquestioned, Down, Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Crowbar, Orange Goblin, Autopsy, Candlemass, and Bolt Thrower citing them as an influence.