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I Psalm 9 - "We just played to the walls forever."
I Like many bands on their debut albums in the early 1980 s, Trouble knew the first rule of I freaking out young metal heads: no band pictures; instead, creepy but somewhat rough I illustration and a band name that only hinted at... trouble. A sense of mystery ensues, I fueled by lack of press, and in Trouble's case, frightening fire and brimstone lyrics of a I sword-wielding Christian bent. But the mystique crumbles without music to back it up, and I on that front, Trouble delivered, turning in a white-knuckle display of nerves-frayed doom, I its particular quake not felt since early Sabbath, or perhaps, in trace elements, through the I work of Angel Witch and most quantifiably, Witchfinder General.
I Conspicuously though, these were Americans, working in a hippie-hazed and enigmati-
I cally Beatles-crazed vacuum out in Chicago. And with Eric Wagner howling in pain tales of I Christian retribution over rumbling sheets of doom, Trouble had on their hands a record .1
I that was instantly and universally hailed as a foreboding force of metal, something rough j I and unhewn to the point of feeling unbridled, as if Trouble were a mere conduit for a greater
I force, one that synergistically and potently emerged through a melding of electricity and
I God-awfulness.
I Into the harrowing music at hand, opener "The Tempter" was most definitely a sledge of I might, as was the more rock n' rollsy "Assassin" and the venomous "Bastards Will Pay," I perhaps the album's biggest anthem. Toward the end, "Psalm 9" turned into a confused, ■ erstwhile title track when the band decided to do a second self-titled album in 1990. All I told, the album surged then skulked almost catatonically, before energy built for another I attack, the canny sequencing making for a metal trip with huge stakes - an eternity of bliss I or of damnation.
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"Well, over the years, everybody found out that I was The Tempter" 1; ing back. "I just have a way of talking people into things and getting i (laughs). But no, like I said, just like everybody else, when metal first like Metal For Muthas, Angel Witch... everything was really gothic a would get my lyrics out of Bible too. But 1 thought in the early days I blunt with stuff and as I got older and more experienced writing lyric come a little more poetic. I started reading books by William Blake, I I was big into The Doors and Morrison, and that's where 1 got those r reading books on Morrison. He was reading that stuff, so was like, let
"We actually got together, I think it was in 79," explains guitarist Rid the path to the legendary sessions for the record in California, "and v one or two shows a year, and we would practice for five nights a week never missed practice. We just played to the walls forever. So we actu and the second one pretty much written at that point. So it was just a songs we wanted to put on what record. The trip up to L.A. was an ex kids going out there in a van we bought (laughs), and we were haulin a U-Haul which ended up rolling over on the highway, which ended i middle of the road. It was pretty close; we ended up sliding off the ro; rail, just missing going over the edge of the road by about a foot. And Brian Slagel put us up in the Tropicana Hotel, which was pretty cool, there were all these rock bands staying there. So it gave us a taste of w on out there..."
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C'I was brought up Catholic," sighs Eric, in closing, again grasping with his strange, metaphysical lyrics. "But you have to remember, back then in the early '80s, all the metal was kind of Satanic, and 1 didn't get into that vibe. And these people were talking about God too, and the Devil, and cut your mom's throat out and shove her heart up her butt. So as far as writing lyrics, I wasn't trying to save anybody, but just explore my life. Because you
H don't understand when you're 20 years old; you don't know what's going on. You're doing acid and stuff, so you're kind of like, what is the meaning of life? And 1 thought some of those subjects were cool too. I mean, the Satanic stuff wasn't totally new either. You look at Lucifer's Friend's first album, those lyrics could have been written by Slayer or Witch-finder General. So I think it was more Metal Blade trying to be cute or something, with everything being called black metal, why not call us white metal, which is a bunch of crap. We were just five dudes playing heavy fuckin' music. 1 was learning how to write lyrics. 1 had 'The Tempter' which I thought was cool, but I wasn't preaching like Stryper or any-
I thing. So why did we get all the shit? I mean did Slayer believe in the devil and have black masses and stuff? Whatever." __________ _________
Martin Popoff, 2006 ^^^fl
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