Don’t know how this one winged its way to HRH, XXX first saw the light of day in 2004, but it did and it’s down to me to dissect it. Described as ‘Pennsylvania’s best kept secret’ I can only think that either Troubled Wine have got a great sense of humour or they are so lost up their own bottoms it’s not true. Sadly on the evidence of this appalling ego-fest it’s almost definitely the latter.

Look at the track listing and note two songs with the abbreviated use of ‘2’ instead of ‘to’ and the fact that the band have crap nicknames (except for drummer Jim – bless ‘im – I mean him – I’m getting as bad as this lot) and you might get the picture that they aren’t going to trouble the bods at Mensa (neither am I come to think of it). 

Clearly vocalist/guitarist Strohly is the catalyst and clearly he’s also a bloody ‘big head’. Thing is he hasn’t the ability to back it up. His singing is dire and reminiscent of Dave Mustaine (if he’d somehow managed to swallow a hyena) and if you had told me he was wearing boxing gloves during the lead guitar breaks I would believe that too. However the riffing is like something out of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal circa 1980 and cranks along quite nicely on occasion and shock horror tracks like ‘Hard 2 Sleep’ and the ridiculous ‘Be Still My Dirty Mind’ have even got memorable hooks. But don’t be fooled: this album is a bit of a shocker, unless you are of a perverse nature i.e. ‘the so bad it’s good’ school of thought.  

In summation: the egg box production is awful, the bass and drums equally as bad as Strohly’s efforts, and I can’t recommend this to anyone other than a complete sadist. I’m being totally serious when I say that rather than bother listening to this go down to the ‘Dog & Duck’ instead and support some local talent – they’ll almost certainly be better than this. There’s a track on here called ‘Still Unknown’ and I suspect that’s the way it will remain.

Contact: www.troubledwine.com

Bryan Clarke