It’s official, original TROUBLE drummer Jeff “Oly” Olson (RETRO GRAVE, IN~GRAVED) will appear on the next as-of-yet untitled TROUBLE album set for a 2013 release. Olson wrote on his HEADY METAL WITH JEFF OLSON Facebook page today:
“It’s official… I’m going to be playing some keys on the next Trouble record. Been working on some intros. Don’t know when the record will be released. I’m also going on tour with Victor Griffin’s In~Graved this Spring playing keys… tour dates coming soon. After that, a new Retro Grave record with special guests guitar players. Can’t wait!”
THE SKULL, the new band formed by two original members of Chicago doom legends TROUBLE — vocalist Eric Wagner and drummer Jeff “Oly” Olson — alongside the band’s longtime bassist, Ron Holzner, has recruited guitarists Lothar Keller and Michael Carpenter of the Chicago, Illinois-based progressive power metal band SACRED DAWN. Glen Drover (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, KING DIAMOND) will not join the band as the guest touring guitarist due to scheduling conflicts.
Commented Wagner, Olson, and Holzner in a statement:
“We welcome the twin guitar attack of Lothar Keller and Michael Carpenter from SACRED DAWN.
Both guitarist have been playing together for many years and that’s a big plus. We are excited to begin rehearsing for our upcoming shows!”
The following festival dates have been confirmed so far. More dates will be announced soon.
June 16 – Days of The Doomed Festival – Cudahy, WI – with EARTHEN GRAVE/BLACKFINGER
July 21 – Hells Pleasure Festival – Pößneck, Germany
September 01 – SHoD (Stoner Hands of Doom) – New London, Connecticut – with RETRO GRAVE
November 10th – Hammer of Doom Festival -Würzburg, Germany
“Touch The Sky” during Eric Wagner’s BLACKFINGER set at DAYS OF THE DOOM FEST 6/18/2011 with Eric Wagner, Ron Holzner, and Jeff “Oly” Olson
BLACKFINGER, the new project featuring ex-TROUBLE vocalist Eric Wagner, has released its first single, “All The Leaves Are Brown”, via Dark Star Records. The track was produced by Vincent Wojno (MACHINE HEAD, KREATOR, TROUBLE), who is currently mixing BLACKFINGER’s full-length debut, to be made available in 2012.
BLACKFINGER is:
Eric Wagner – Vocals
Doug Hakes – Guitar
Rico Bianchi – Guitar
Ben Smith – Bass
Larry Piatz – Drums
A promotional video for “All The Leaves Are Brown”, which can be purchased via Amazon and iTunes, is available below.
TROUBLE formed in 1979 and released several classic albums like “Trouble”, “Manic Frustration” and “Plastic Green Head”.
Eric was one of the guest singers on Dave Grohl’s (NIRVANA, FOO FIGHTERS) heavy metal side project PROBOT, whose 2004 album featured heavy metal vocalists from the ’80s and ’90s. Wagner also makes a guest appearance in the forthcoming horror film “Jezebeth” (written and directed by Damien Dante of Satania 6 Films), to be released on Blu-ray in early 2012.
Eric Wagner left TROUBLE in April 2008, citing his disdain for the touring life as the main reason for his departure.
Review and pictures by Arto Lehtinen, Niko Karppinen and Luxi Lahtinen
Finland is definitely one hell of a paradise for metalheads as there are five to six metal festivals arranged all around Finland during the summer time. One of those metal festivals which has started becoming more and more known is Jalometalli up in the north of Finland. The whole festival started as a small event, mostly consisting of local bands. Jalometalli has since grown, attracting plenty of killer and catchy names such as Onslaught, Testament, and Rotting Christ. This year’s event was no exception with several first time visitors such as Overkill, Trouble and Mortal Sin. It is obvious most of these bands have been all time favs of the Jalometalli organization. The festival is not a big massive gathering of tens of thousands of people. Instead, the event is a small, true, intense metal event with visitors having travelled from far away. This is the very first time ever when Jalometalli festival is covered by Metal-Rules.com. And if you live somewhere in the northern part of Sweden, Norway or Russia, start seriously considering having a roadtrip to the next Jalometalli event as the line-up of 2009 will surely be full of pleasant surprises…
Enjoy the article and some video clips in it, too!
TROUBLE has been, and still is, one of the most important and influential doom metal bands. They have had a huge impact on various metal styles from extreme death metal to above all majestical doom metal. The legendary five piece doomsters from Chicago made a visit to the prestigious SwedenRock festival where I managed to catch the band’s guitarist Rick Wartell to have a conversation about the new seventh output SIMPLE MIND CONDITION and of course the past, the present and the future.
Article and pics by Arto Lehtinen and Marko Syrjälä
(Addiotional comments by J. Huovila – Thanks)
Wow! This is the seventh time that the Finnish Metal-Rules squad made an invasion to the mighty Swedenrock festival. Almost 70 bands descended upon the southern area of Sweden for a festival that turned out to be an utter blast from the beginning to the end! The bill of Swedenrock festival 2007 covers a wide range of metal styles and even classic rock stuff such as Kreator to Black Oak Arkansas and everything between. Therefore, there was at least something for everyone who attended the festival. As usual, the whole festival was once again sold out with around 30,000 people at the area every day. The Swedenrock festival has always had tremendous luck with the weather every year. Once again the gods of weather had given their blessing for this rocking metallic heaven on the earth with an extreme hot and sunny weekend that burned red the skin of several festival goers.
As written in the first sentence, this is already the seventh time that the Swedenrock festival has been featured in the site of Metal-Rules.com, so it is quite logical for us to give an in-depth article of several bands performing at Swedenrock. However we are not able to cover every band, but hopefully you will have a pleasant reading moment… Enjoy !!!
