Det amerikanske metalband Trouble fra 1979 er legender indenfor genren! Med en lyd der lægger sig op af Black Sabbath og Saint Vitus blandet med 70'ernes psykedeliske rock er deres to første albums 'Psalm 9' og 'The Skull' milepæle i doom-land. Bandet har udgivet ni studiealbums, hvor det seneste "The Distortion Field" (2013) er med nuværende sanger Kyle Thomas og bringer dem på tour i Europa dette efterår.
Line Up: Kyle Thomas (vocals), Rick Wartell (guitar), Bruce Franklin (guitars), Ian Brown (bass), Mark "Marko" Lira (drums)
Bio:
The band Trouble pre-dates 1979,but that is the year that Bruce Franklin and Eric Wagner answered the ad that guitarist, Rick Wartell had in Chicago's local music paper. "Hard rock band looking for guitarist and singer. "That was the beginning of Trouble as everyone would recognize in years to come. Eventually signing to Metal Blade Records in 1983, Trouble released their influential self titled record (later known as "Psalm 9") in 1984. Dave Grohl has described the record as being his "Sgt. Pepper's of metal"and there would be a long line of musicians and critics that would come to praise that record and the band's following record, "The Skull" (1985).
In 1987 the band released "Run to the Light" and did their first full North American tour as support act for King Diamond. "Run to the Light" was a more diverse sound than the ultra heavy, dark Sabbath-like doom of the first 2 records. The band was growing and experimenting, adding keyboards to more songs and trying to incorporate more of their influences into their writing. It was a learning process that helped the band graduate to their next record.
Signed by Rick Rubin, away from Metal Blade in 1988, Trouble started work on their first record for Rubin's new label, Def American Recordings (later shortened to American Recordings). Working with Rubin as semi-present producer, they recorded what many believe is their best record, again self titled, and the sales generated helped verify this by the end of 1990. The record had a more heavy rock sound borrowing from Zeppelin and Deep Purple as much as the Sabbath influence of earlier records. The band toured for the whole year of 1990 with names like, Dio, The Ramones, Danzig and Savatage, along with plenty of headline club shows. This year also would see the band visit Europe for the first time. On the heels of the "Trouble" (1990) record's success, the band teamed again with semi-present producer Rick Rubin to record "Manic Frustration"(1992). Continuing in the heavy rock direction of the previous record, there was plenty of 70's hard rock style songwriting that touched a nerve with fans and critics alike. The band did plenty of touring again in 1992, including 4 months with Pantera, who requested Trouble as their support act. These early '90's years were probably the commercial peak for Trouble, with MTV playing multiple videos and some of the major market FM radio stations playing their single releases in the US.
The band now had 2 records in a row that had sold 100,000 copies, but still hadn't seen it translate to much money in their pockets. This would prompt the band to ask out of it's contract with American Recordings in hopes of signing a more cash lucrative deal. This happened when the band signed to BulletProof records and it's affiliates in Europe. Trouble then also signed with Century Media as their US label and the money was better, for the time being. The band recorded "Plastic Green Head" and released it in Europe in 1995, followed by the US release in early 1996. The record had a mix of heavy rock, psychedelic rock and metal. By this time, Europe was really catching on to Trouble, but with the coming of Grunge and Alternative rock in the US, Trouble and other more metal sounding bands were starting to lose their momentum. There was successful touring in Europe in 1995 and 1996,but a fairly dismal tour with Cathedral supporting in the US, pretty much broke the spirit of the band and they would unofficially split in '96. More than one member has said that they just needed a break from one another. This break would last for nearly 6 years.In the meantime, various members would release solo records. Wagner released a record under the name Lid in 1999, Franklin released "Supershine" in 2000 and Wartell released "Wet Animal" in 2002. There were also 3 separate one-off shows that Trouble did in these 6 years that had all members participate, except for Wagner. The singer for these shows was Kyle Thomas of Exhorder/Floodgate fame, who would years later become Wagner's permanent replacement in Trouble.
In January 2002, Trouble did a reunion show with no plans of permanently getting back together.This lineup was the same as the first Trouble album except for Ron Holzner playing bass.(He would decide not to continue soon after.) The reunion show was such an overwhelming success,with each major newspaper in town sending their music critics to write reviews of the sold-out show.The fans loved it,the critics wrote rave reviews and the members of Trouble thought that maybe it was time to make a comeback.
2003 saw the band do touring in Europe and a few choice shows in the US. Later that year the band signed with Escapi music and recorded their first live concert dvd, "Live in Stockholm". In 2004 the band started writing for their first record in 10 years while "Live in Stockholm" was releasesd.Finished in 2006, "Simple Mind Condition" wasn't released until spring 2007 which coincided with a European tour and also 2 US tours. 2008 would see the band do another short US tour and also a European tour and tensions were starting to show up again. Soon after this European tour in 2008, it was announced that Wagner would not be singing with Trouble going forward. In maybe a hasty decision, Kory Clarke, of Warrior Soul was recruited to sing for the band. At this time the band began working on a new record while continuing to do touring over the next couple of years. Eventually, it was decided that Clarke's voice and "political punk" approach was just not working and the immediate choice for his replacement was Kyle Thomas, who had fronted the band for the one-off shows during it's hiatus period of the late 90's. Thomas would have been the first choice to replace Wagner in 2008, but he was then singing and touring with Alabama Thunderpussy, as he had recorded the vocals for their current and most successful record.
By the time the band had reached agreement with Thomas in 2012, Trouble had a nearly completed album of music waiting for vocals. Thomas spent the better part of 2012 writing lyrics and eventualy recording vocals as the other members put on finishing touches of the music. 2013 saw the release of "The Distortion Field", Trouble's first release with someone other than Wagner on vocals. The album was mixed by Bill Metoyer,who had worked with Trouble way back on their first two album recordings for Metal Blade Records. The record is a mix of heavy rock, metal and a bit of psychedelic flavoring. The reviews have been heavily in favor of the record with many saying that Thomas helped bring back life to a band that was sounding kind of tired on the last record. Alot of the music is also some of the best product by the band since it's early '90's heyday. "The Distortion" Field is the first record for Trouble to hit the Billboard chart in the US.It also spent a few weeks in the top 20 of Amazon's sales charts for rock and metal, peaking at #3. In Germany, "The Distortion Field" hit #34 on Media Markt Music sales chart. Recently, "The Distortion Field" has been hitting many top albums of the year lists from various magazines, internet magazines, internet radio and over the airwave radio, with most of those being in the top 10 of 2013.The band did a brief tour in Europe near the end of 2013 and in 2014 plans to do some dates in the US in the late Spring and dates in Europe this summer. Trouble is looking forward to a fairly busy year touring in support of their most successful record in many years. Plans for working on the follow up album to "The Distortion Field" will start late in the year with this same lineup.