UMUR "Manic Frustration" is the 5th full-length studio album by US doom metal/heavy rock act Trouble. The album was released through the Rick Rubin owned Def American Recordings in June 1992. Rubin is credited as co-producer along with Trouble. "Manic Frustration" is the successor to the band´s second eponymously titled album from 1990, which was also a Rick Rubin produced affair. It was an album which saw Trouble taking their music in a different direction to the doom/heavy metal style of their first three albums, as that album sits firmly in stoner doom/heavy rock territory.

The style of the predecessor is more or less continued on "Manic Frustration", but with a stronger mainstream appeal and with generally more memorable songwriting. Tracks like "Come Touch the Sky", "Memory's Garden" (a video was shot for this track), and "Hello Strawberry Skies" are among the highlights ("The Sleeper" is an absolute heavy/hard rock beauty too), but "Manic Frustration" is a strong album throughout, featuring predominantly energetic hard rockers, but also some slower and more mellow tracks like "Rain" and "Breathe...". The two latter mentioned aren´t the highlights of the album, but they are nice breathers between the high energy hard rockers on the album.

The music style isn´t as such a revolution and you´ll hear little here you haven´t heard in some form or other by other artists and on other releases, but Trouble understand how to write a great powerful heavy rock riff, play some great heavy rhythms, and top it of with the strong screaming vocals by Eric Wagner, who sounds like the bastard child of Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) and Brian Johnson (AC/DC). It may seem like a simple recipe on creating vers/chorus structured heavy/hard rock songs, and to some degree it is just that. But standing out from the crowd playing this type of music and to write and deliver memorable tracks with such passion and burning conviction as the listener are exposed to on this release is rare.

Another great feature on "Manic Frustration" is the sharp and powerful sounding production job. That rhythm guitar sound is corrosive. So upon conclusion "Manic Frustration" is a both memorable release and an effective one too, which means you can sing along to all tracks while banging your head at the same time. This sits on the border between heavy metal and heavy/hard rock, and Trouble nail that style to perfection here. A 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

SilentScream213 Trouble’s self-titled is considered the band’s best work, but I consider it a large step back. To be clear, it’s still one of the best Trad Doom albums of its era, but that’s partly the problem. The Skull and Run to the Light were making bounds and leaps towards true Doom – the depressing, emotional atmosphere, the crushing riffs… They were certainly the closest the 80’s came to true Doom, and they were masterpieces.

Trouble is simply the band falling back into groovy Trad Doom territory. The progress of their last few albums is thrown aside in favor of a more “fun” traditional album. The songwriting is simplified, and there’s more focus on vocal melodies. Lyrics tend to be somber, but the delivery isn’t. In fact, it sounds like the band’s having a great time. Good for them, but I don’t want my Doom to sound like that!

All those gripes aside, I have to reiterate it’s probably the best pure Trad Doom put to record by the turn of the decade. Songs are interesting, varied, and fun. Eric Wagner sounds better than ever, though I prefer his more desperate delivery on earlier releases.

SilentScream213 Not incredibly impressed by Trouble’s debut album, their sophomore effort The Skull completely blew me away. I will say that this is the first Doom Metal album that makes the transition from Trad Doom to the more modern, melancholic Doom that I personally favor.

Musically, the lead guitar focuses on simple albeit effective melodies that add an extra layer of mood to the basic riffs that litter Trad Doom. The song structures are much more progressive – not that the music is incredibly complex, but there is a lot of variation, changes in speed, and many, many riffs in each of the rather long tracks. The solos have a fantastic balance of going for purposeful melodies that work perfectly with the rhythm work, or outright breaking into distorted, droning chaotic buzz. The drumming is another thing I love; I’d say this is also the first case of what I’d call “intelligent Doom Metal drumming.” Instead of simply playing slow, plodding beats, the drummer adds some progressive beats, and adds a great amount of double bass drumming in as well. Occasionally, all the musicians break out into speedy sections and just have at it, which I love in Doom. One song even has synthesized strings – a staple to modern Doom!

The lyrics and mood are the biggest separators from Trad Doom. No, I’m not talking about the Christian lyrics, I mean the references to depression, suicide, loss and death. The rich symbolism and more poetic style of songwriting is something that would be heavily expanded upon by Death Doomers of the 90’s, but it started right here. The music is also much more set to reflect the mood here, and there’s a clear difference to previously Satanic or drug and party influenced Doom of before.

Another aspect I haven’t seen in Trad Doom displayed here is passion. There is true passion in the lyrics and vocal delivery, even if those vocals are pretty rough. It’s clear the vocalist is not only 100% struggling with loss of hope and other issues, but also completely has faith in his God to help him, and to help others, and he’s truly thankful for it. This is music written for purpose; not just to sound good, but to deliver an important message. I myself am not a religious person of any kind, but I can still appreciate the passion and meaning to the music here, and the groundbreaking achievement that it was for my favorite music genre, Doom Metal.

UMUR "Trouble" is the 4th full-length studio album by US doom metal/heavy rock act Trouble. The album was released through the Rick Rubin owned Def American Recordings in February 1990. It´s the band´s first release on the label and label boss Rick Rubin acts as producer on the album. It´s of some notice that the album is actually the second release by the band to feature an eponymous title as Trouble´s debut album from 1984 also featured that title. The latter had it´s title changed to "Psalm 9" after the release of the 1990 album.

Musically the album takes a bit of a left turn compared to the three preceding releases by the band. While "Run to the Light (1987)" wasn´t nearly as doomy and heavy as the first two releases by the band, it was still through and through a doom metal release. The same can´t be said about "Trouble", which features a more accessible vers/chorus structured hard/heavy rock with only very few nods toward doom metal. Examples of the latter style can be heard in the intro to "R.I.P." and in the middle section of "Heaven on My Mind". A psychadelic element has also crept into the band´s sound, which can be heard on "The Misery Shows (Act II)", where there are nods toward both Pink Floyd and The Beatles. Mostly though the tracks just rock really hard with sharp and groove laden riffing. It´s often said that a self-titled release signals a significant change in sound or a return to the roots, and the former is certainly true when it comes to this album.

The band make the transition with great success though and even though the musical style is in many ways quite different from what came before, this is still unmistakably the sound of "Trouble". Heavy hard rocking riffing, a heavy rhythm section (more hard rocking and groove laden than earlier), and of course the powerful and rusty sounding vocals by Eric Wagner in front. A bit more simple and accessible but still damn heavy. The material is generally of high quality and all tracks are memorable and well played. The Rick Rubin production suits the music well and overall "Trouble" is quite the enjoyable listen if you adjust your expectations to how it sounds and don´t expect it to be a full blown doom metal album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Plastic Green Head" is the 6th full-length studio album by US doom metal/hard rock act Trouble. The album was originally released through Bulletproof Records (a sub-label to Music for Nations) in Europe in April 1995. It was later licensed by Century Media Records for a US release with the bonus track "Till the End of Time". "Plastic Green Head" marked the recording comeback of original drummer Jeff Olson, who left Trouble in 1986 and returned in 1993. After the relatively commercially successful "Manic Frustration (1992)" (it was the band´s best selling album and shifted around 100.000 copies) the band had high expectations to how well "Plastic Green Head" would do, but they were in for a disappointment of the great ones because the album was generally met with lurk warm reviews and many fans weren´t too happy with the album either. To make matters even worse the band´s European tour was cancelled and they decided to take a longer break. A break that ended up being even longer because lead vocalist Eric Wagner left the band in 1997. He came back in 2000 but it would be another 7 years before they released their 7th full-length studio album "Simple Mind Condition (2007)".

The music on "Plastic Green Head" is somewhat in the vein of the music on "Manic Frustration (1992)" albeit a bit more psychadelic and not quite as sharp and memorable. That means doomy hard rock with heavy riffs, a rusty vocal in front and a nice groove. As such the band do what they do best, but the material are generally not catchy enough and too many of the tracks are forgotten as soon as the album is over. The sound production is not as powerful or edgy as on the predecessor either and "Plastic Green Head" is just generally not as exciting as "Manic Frustration (1992)". I don´t know if a slight fatique had slipped into the band at this point, but the material just don´t seem as inspired as it is on earlier releases by the band. I kinda enjoy their excursions into psychadelic territory, when they do a cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles, but the increased psychadelic influence does take away some of the edge from the music too.

The musicianship is as always strong but the sound production lacks a bit of bite, which might have helped some of the more "laid back" tracks to shine a bit more. Overall "Plastic Green Head" was and still is a disappointment considering it was the successor to the really strong "Manic Frustration (1992)". It´s still somewhat enjoyable though and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.