The new TROUBLE album is moving closer to the finish line. Singer Kyle Thomas told Chicago's Rebel Radio that he has tracked vocals for about half of the record's 10 or 11 songs, and that the music itself is down to the final touches.
Thomas records his parts at home. He receives mixes of each song, tracks his vocals and then works back and forth with whichever guitarist wrote the music, Rick Wartell or Bruce Franklin, until they're happy, before sharing the result with the rest of the band. "I think there's 10, 11 songs on this album, and I've finished about half of them," he said. Musically, he added, all that remains is "guitar overdubs and maybe some solos — just the little icing-on-the-cake kind of things. So things are looking good."
The singer is currently on the road with his other band, thrash and groove veterans EXHORDER. Once that run ends in late October, he plans to spend the rest of the year at home and finish the remaining five or so songs, ideally before Thanksgiving.
The album will be the Chicago doom pioneers' first since 2013's The Distortion Field, Thomas's debut studio record with the band. Earlier this year he said the instrumental tracks had already gone to producer Bill Metoyer for mixing, and he declined to say whether the record would be TROUBLE's swan song, noting that the answer lies with founding guitarists Wartell and Franklin. The current lineup is completed by bassist Rob Hultz and drummer Garry Naples.
No title or release date has been announced yet.