Sacre Bleu! Vive le Rock!
270. Trust "Prefabricated"
In the early 1980's when I entered my pimple-encrusted hormone-oozing manchild phase*, I discovered both the term and musical genre known as 'heavy metal.' Imagine my delight, when at the mall bookstore, right next to Playboy and Penthouse stood a magazine called just that. My furtive looks told me it didn't have much to do with music, but instead was basically a sci-fi horror comic but with lots more boobies and gore, which was fine with me. By the time I was able to do more than sneak peeks, the magazine had all but vanished. However, they did manage to put out a movie with the same title, which I only got to see in snatches on cable until much later. I did manage to find a copy of the soundtrack at the pulic library of all places (must've been some comics geek or hard rock fan on staff).
Naturally, I took it home. It featured good songs by familiar names like arena stalwarts Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad and for some strange reason, Stevie Nicks, Donald Fagen and Devo. As I copied the LP's to cassette, late in the proceedings, I came to today's song, by a band I had never heard of and I had no idea what to expect. It opened with drums blasting out the morse code for 'I've gone insane' then erupted into a rapid-fire maelstrom of metallic guitar topped with raging vocals** adding up to a sonic experiece that sounded radioed in from a battlefield, ending with the drums bleating alone again as if the rest of the band had passed out from exhaustion. I was blown away. It was my first musical 'what the hell was that??' experience.
Needless to say, over the years, my music geek side filled in the blanks. Trust were France's big entry in the late 70's/early 80's wave of Eurometal that followed the likes of Iron Maiden***. The precision dynamics of the riffage and the dive-bombing pyrotechics of the guitar solo definitely are metal to these ears. However, the breakneck pace, dirty trebly sheets of guitar noise, and especially Bernie Bonvoisin's bile-gargling vocals (the French accent only heightens the effect here. listen to the way he intones the phrase 'Make him cry,' like some psychotic Gallic pirate) owe as much to the Stooges, MC5 and first wave English punk bands like the Sex Pistols, Clash and the Damned. In retrospect, my 'what the hell' experience was an unknowing introduction to the murky netherworld where punk and metal meet and much good listening is to be had. It may have also been a lesson: take all the taxonomy with a grain of salt and concentrate on what comes out of the speakers. It's a lesson that's served me well.
*When's that phase supposed to end, anyway? Get back to me on that.
**to this day I'm not sure what he's singing about, it basically a wonderful blurred garble and I've never found a lyric transcription
***Trust are still highly regarded by latter-day metal outfits. Anthrax ably covered their classic 'Antisocial' in the late 80's.
In the early 1980's when I entered my pimple-encrusted hormone-oozing manchild phase*, I discovered both the term and musical genre known as 'heavy metal.' Imagine my delight, when at the mall bookstore, right next to Playboy and Penthouse stood a magazine called just that. My furtive looks told me it didn't have much to do with music, but instead was basically a sci-fi horror comic but with lots more boobies and gore, which was fine with me. By the time I was able to do more than sneak peeks, the magazine had all but vanished. However, they did manage to put out a movie with the same title, which I only got to see in snatches on cable until much later. I did manage to find a copy of the soundtrack at the pulic library of all places (must've been some comics geek or hard rock fan on staff).
Naturally, I took it home. It featured good songs by familiar names like arena stalwarts Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad and for some strange reason, Stevie Nicks, Donald Fagen and Devo. As I copied the LP's to cassette, late in the proceedings, I came to today's song, by a band I had never heard of and I had no idea what to expect. It opened with drums blasting out the morse code for 'I've gone insane' then erupted into a rapid-fire maelstrom of metallic guitar topped with raging vocals** adding up to a sonic experiece that sounded radioed in from a battlefield, ending with the drums bleating alone again as if the rest of the band had passed out from exhaustion. I was blown away. It was my first musical 'what the hell was that??' experience.
Needless to say, over the years, my music geek side filled in the blanks. Trust were France's big entry in the late 70's/early 80's wave of Eurometal that followed the likes of Iron Maiden***. The precision dynamics of the riffage and the dive-bombing pyrotechics of the guitar solo definitely are metal to these ears. However, the breakneck pace, dirty trebly sheets of guitar noise, and especially Bernie Bonvoisin's bile-gargling vocals (the French accent only heightens the effect here. listen to the way he intones the phrase 'Make him cry,' like some psychotic Gallic pirate) owe as much to the Stooges, MC5 and first wave English punk bands like the Sex Pistols, Clash and the Damned. In retrospect, my 'what the hell' experience was an unknowing introduction to the murky netherworld where punk and metal meet and much good listening is to be had. It may have also been a lesson: take all the taxonomy with a grain of salt and concentrate on what comes out of the speakers. It's a lesson that's served me well.
*When's that phase supposed to end, anyway? Get back to me on that.
**to this day I'm not sure what he's singing about, it basically a wonderful blurred garble and I've never found a lyric transcription
***Trust are still highly regarded by latter-day metal outfits. Anthrax ably covered their classic 'Antisocial' in the late 80's.
