Title: Run to the Light Artist: Trouble Label:Metal Blade Records Release Date: 1987 Rating: 5 Skulls
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Death's Review:
When I first heard Trouble's The Skull as a wee child, I thought it was the second coming of Black Sabbath. But what threw me back then and took me a bit to get my mind around was the fact that my friends were calling this stuff "white metal," as opposed to the Venom and Bathory-style "black metal" that was also poisoning our ears. That was because Trouble was ostensibly a "god" band. I guess it is true, but I soon decided that Trouble was a religious band almost in the same way that Black Sabbath was, albeit perhaps a touch more overt. Sabbath sung about being fearful of god's wrath - on Trouble's Run to the Light, their 1987 release, they sang about scurrying away from the darkness and into the arms of god. Indeed, I guess it was a bit preachy. But I didn't mind then and I still don't mind today, because the shit is so god-damned heavy. Stryper and Trouble may have been idealogically on the same page on some level, but musically they were worlds apart.

Fast forward to today. I've been jamming a killer Touble mix a friend made for me in my car as I drive the streets of L.A. There have been quite a few cold and rainy nights of late, and as I'm sitting safe and snug in my climate controlled vehicle, the beauty of the quiet verses of the song "Run to the Light" is only emphasized by the sound of the elements pounding away outside the vehicle. Then comes in the heavy chorus. One cannot help but bang their head. I love Eric Wagner's voice too. I find myself singing "Thinking of the Past" over and over - it is very catchy yet heavy and I cannot get the song out of my head. "The Misery Shows" is a great opener, and "The Beginning" is also brutally heavy.

There is such an immediacy and an urgency to this music that it stands the test of time and should never be forgotten. Seeing Eric Wagner sing with Probot on Headbanger's Ball recently only heightened my interest in what I hope will be a new Trouble studio album. I think Dave Grohl should pull a Newsted/Voivod and join Trouble as their drummer and do the second stage on Ozzfest in 2005. Until then . . . check out the back catalogue. The Skull is also a classic not to be missed (a bit more raw and heavier than this one).

 

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