Trouble - Trouble (1990)

The Chicago combo hit the heights, signing to Def American, and then destroying the entire metal fraternity with what is without doubt one of the greatest heavy rock albums of all time. Would this have happened without the influence of Zeppelin, Sabbath and a bucket load of drugs ? Maybe, either way, it’s a potent mix of all three, Rick Rubin’s production here making this record a bloated behemoth, an iron giant of an opus that strides above the rock scene, trampling all the newcomers and old-timers in its monolithic wake, even making the bands earlier efforts seem comparatively mild! This is earthquake overload, at times lucid, sometimes beautiful, mostly sad, always frightening in its sheer weight, this is not doom rock, it’s just rock ‘n’ roll Armageddon.
Wagner, a banshee, a foghorn, a rampant yet soulful messiah breathing light and dark into the kaleidoscopic sky, a storm s brewing here, the zenith cracks and the riffs just rain down, the drums are more than thunder, the track list more than heavenly, spin the record time and time again, it never weakens, but it lessens the so called competition, forget Candlemass, forget Saint Vitus, only Sabbath and Zeppelin’s darkest moments match Trouble’s grandeur and arrogance.
How a band could be still considered just a cult act after releasing such a monster is beyond me, here is one of the genre’s most perfect works, eight tracks that just plough through the streets and the fields, sweeping, shaking and destroying with such casual ease, it’s as if the band are mocking all who dare stand in their way, because what is on offer here is just ludicrous in its genius. There’s no sleeve art of fantasy to draw you in, just the band standing there, just like Sabbath all those years ago in their almost dated album covers, simple images yet which mean so much as the funereal chords march through the city, crows perch ominously on every building, the clouds ache in their willingness to bleed rain like there’s never been rain before, and when it comes, it’s at one sweepingly majestic yet suffocating, no sludge, just pure tyrannical rock music, with the most uplifting and timeless choruses, solo’s which embed themselves into the soul, and lyrics which paint pictures of leafy misery, rainy Sunday’s and graveyards drenched in mist.
Pick a track, any track, and it’s a full blown classic that still, almost two decades later, remains untouched by any other band. ‘Trouble’ as a record stands confidently alongside Sabbath’s most masterful works, as a record it shuns no deity, and instead becomes one, a godly, supreme force which spreads huge black wings and envelopes the world in its overpowering shadow.
Buy this record, or forever remain bereft.
10/10