TROUBLE — Plastic Green Head (review)

TROUBLE — Plastic Green Head album cover

Album · 1995 · Stoner Metal

3/5 · 2014-11-03
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.

more than 2 years ago
Permalink
Report #303683

Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer

Please login to post a shout

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Probably my least favorite Trouble album, and I´m not too enthusiastic about recommending it. They´ve released other albums that blow this one away.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Hahaha! The sound production lacks bite, huh? So does a title like "Plastic Green Head!" It just sounds very amusing for an album title. I've never heard this but would at least like to hear it once