TROUBLE -

TROUBLE - PSALM 9 - ESCAPI  
This is a re-release of Trouble’s self-titled debut 1984 album, originally released by Metal Blade, which is annoyingly re-titled Psalm 9 here. For my money, Trouble (er, Psalm 9) is the band’s best work. Hard-hitting cuts like the opener The Tempter, its adventurous follow-up Assassin and the group’s best song, The Fall Of Lucifer display some brilliant moments of Black Sabbath and Angel Witch-influenced metal. Doom metal is the band’s bread and butter, although the album contains many up-tempo moments.
In case it has not been made clear already or Trouble is a new name to you the band is Christian and the lyrics and concepts are awash in related topics, but the quintet was never a conventional Christian entity. As if playing heavy metal was not enough, the band had a metal hippie image and was high or stoned half the time. The group has distanced itself somewhat from religion since those early days, yet remains one of the heaviest white metal bands to date.
This edition features several rare photographs and a bonus DVD, which was unreadable by all the technology at Metallian Towers (many slaves and commoners perished in the ensuing melee). - Ali “The Metallian”

TROUBLE - THE SKULL - ESCAPI   
Trouble’s The Skull album was originally issued by the good people at Metal Blade 20 years ago and was correctly promoted as white metal doom. At a time when most metal bands were pursuing a darker vision with faster tempos Chicago’s Trouble defied the trend working Christian themes within sounds associated with Black Sabbath.
Past a baffling cover artwork the 43 minutes of doom metal on this album is faster than the group’s debut album from a year earlier, but unfortunately suffers slightly in quality as well. The new and updated re-issue by Escapi has dropped the Bible quotation on the album’s back cover but song after song is riddled with the adulation of Jesus. This theme, combined with the exploration of the band’s line-up and drug use, make for an interesting topical sum. The core of the music is still slow and downtrodden but songs like Fear No Evil and the title track do speed up.
This edition of the skull 'features' some useless liner notes, that nonetheless confirm the band’s gradual move away from Christianity, but more importantly features some rare 1984 footage of the group in Illinois. Whether your DVD player will achieve the task of actually playing the video footage is another matter however for no DVD player in Metallian Towers was able to complete the feat without much cajoling. Several serfs had to die - Ali “The Metallian”