Rick Wartell formed Trouble in 1978 during his high school years, as

Rick Wartell formed Trouble in 1978 during his high school years, as the sole guitarist and singer for the band, joined by bassist Mike DiPrima and drummer Mike Slopecki. Trouble played their first show that year at Gordon Technical Institute in Chicago. After placing an ad in the Illinois Entertainer in 1981, Wartell revamped the line-up to include guitarist Bruce Franklin , vocalist Eric Wagner , bassist Tim Ian Brown (not to be confused with lead singer of English band The Stone Roses ), and drummer Jeff Olson . Ian Brown was replaced by Sean McAllister in 1983. Drawing from Black Sabbath for inspiration (with occasional nods to the psychedelic sounds of the late 1960s), the band used gloomy down-tuned riffs and spiritual, often openly Bible-inspired lyrics, which led Metal Blade to market the band as “white metal” as opposed to black metal. “I was brought up Catholic “, vocalist and primary lyric writer Wagner explains in the liner notes of Psalm 9 re-issue (2006), “but you have to remember, back in the early 1980s, all the metal was kind of satanic, and I did not get into that vibe.” Wagner has implied that Metal Blade came up with the term in the first place, which the band rejected: “I think it was more like Metal Blade trying to be cute or something, with everything [satanic metal] being called black metal, why not call us white metal, which is a bunch of crap.”