{"id":13172,"date":"2013-07-21T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=13172"},"modified":"2013-07-21T09:15:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T09:15:11","slug":"album-review-trouble-the-distortion-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-trouble-the-distortion-field\/","title":{"rendered":"TROUBLE – The Distortion Field (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TROUBLE
The Distortion Field<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFRW Music (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve often asked myself the question, would Chicago\u2019s Trouble have formed if there\u2019d been no Black Sabbath<\/a> or Led Zeppelin<\/a>? Yep, I know it\u2019s a silly question such was the influence of those two legendary bands, but there\u2019s always been something so natural about Trouble as if they would\u2019ve existed anyway. But let\u2019s just be thankful these mighty doom lords exist, because without them heavy metal would be a far… er, lighter place.<\/p>\n

I was rather nervous before hearing the band\u2019s eighth full-length studio album, as this is Trouble\u2019s first since 2007\u2019s Simple Mind Condition<\/em><\/a>. Mind you, the gaps between albums have never been a problem for these guys, as it\u2019s always been the norm to make us wait an eternity.<\/p>\n

There have also been several problems with the line-up since vocalist Eric Wagner fled the nest back in 2008 (again though, nothing new). That shocking departure was followed by another surprise, with Warrior Soul frontman Kory Clarke being the first to replace the mercurial Wagner. Yet this didn\u2019t work out either.<\/p>\n

And so we come to 2013 and founding members Bruce Franklin and Rick Wartell (both guitars), along with Mark Lira (drums), have enlisted the talents of Exhorder frontman Kyle Thomas. This, for me anyway, was another surprise, despite Thomas\u2019 angst-ridden tones and muscular growls.<\/p>\n

So, despite an unusual Unplugged<\/em> opus in 2007 (featuring Wagner) we\u2019ve been starved of Trouble for so long, and now they are back, but was it worth the wait? Mmm, well, I don\u2019t want to get lynched, because one thing\u2019s for sure, I\u2019m a massive, and I mean massive, Trouble fan, but it\u2019s only natural that it\u2019s going to take me a while to get used to such stormy sounds without Wagner\u2019s gravelled vocals.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the music is top-notch. The 12-track opus opens with the groove-based and accessible \u2018Sink Or Swim\u2019, featuring a typically killer riff and melodic chorus. Sadly though, after a few listens, it\u2019s clear that Thomas just doesn\u2019t have the range to take such a song to the lofty 60s-tinged heights that we\u2019ve become accustomed, but it\u2019s still a smokin\u2019 track featuring a solid drum sound and a shuddering bass \u2013 just a shame that bassist Shane Pasqualla jumped ship too.<\/p>\n

One thing I have noticed here is that the songs are relatively short. There\u2019s nothing cumbersome about these monolithic doomscapes, and Kyle Thomas\u2019 vocals are certainly best suited to the darker tracks, such as the chugging \u2018Paranoid Conspiracy\u2019 and the brooding \u2018When The Sky Comes Down\u2019. The latter is a grey, simmering ogre of a number that builds slowly with typically killer solos and lumbering riffs before picking up the pace; this is vintage Trouble, echoing the days of their 1990 self-titled opus that shook the foundations of my room.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, we\u2019re treated to some delightfully subtle tracks, as per usual with Trouble who majestically stroll through poppy fields and summer skies on numerous albums over the last couple of decades. Again though, particularly on \u2018Have I Told You\u2019, the main ingredient missing is Eric Wagner\u2019s hazy, rainy vocal which so effortlessly was able to shift between Ozzy Osbourne-styled mournful yawns and Robert Plant banshee wails, as Kyle Thomas turns the track into a mediocre grunge-styled cut rather than an epic doom ballad.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the band are back on track with the bone-shuddering \u2018Hunters Of Doom\u2019, which is as old school metal as Trouble are likely to get, punishing the ears with those raging grey guitars and Thomas\u2019 muscular vocal sneers.<\/p>\n

Lyrically, The Distortion Field<\/em> is Trouble doing what they do best, particularly on the already mentioned \u2018Paranoid Conspiracy\u2019, the sombre strains of \u2018Butterflies\u2019 and album closer \u2018The Broken Have Spoken\u2019, but whether this will be enough to please those Wagner disciples, I don\u2019t know? However, I doubt very much that the band care, as this is new Trouble; pristine and primed (thanks to the excellent production of veteran Bill Metoyer, who worked on 1985\u2019s The Skull<\/em> and 1990\u2019s Trouble<\/em>) for resurrection.<\/p>\n

The Distortion Field<\/em> boasts 12 solid, meaty doom-laced brain shakers, of that I\u2019ve no doubt, but in comparison to every other Trouble album that has come and gone, this one just doesn\u2019t have the impact I had hoped and prayed for. Kyle Thoms is very much of that Pantera-style of bruising metal vocalist, and it\u2019s going to take a long, long time for him to even lace Eric Wagner\u2019s boots, let alone fill them.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROUBLEThe Distortion Field FRW Music (2013)Rating: 7\/10 I\u2019ve often asked myself the question, would Chicago\u2019s Trouble have formed if there\u2019d been no Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin? Yep, I know it\u2019s a silly question such was the influence of those two legendary bands, but there\u2019s always been something so natural about Trouble as if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trouble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13172"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13178,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172\/revisions\/13178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}