This album is posthumous, and therein lies the problem. Talking about anything where the creator is no longer with us is tricky enough, but it gets even harder when you have utterly no sympathy for how that fact came to be. Eric Wagner was an anti-vaxxer, and he went on tour right into the eye of the Delta strain's storm. The inevitable happened, and while there was an outpouring of memories and sympathy, don't look to me for any. Tragedy is when something bad happens to someone who doesn't deserve it. When you knowingly put yourself in danger, and your luck runs out, it's not a tragedy. I'm not even sure how sad it is.
And now that I've alienated many of you, let's talk about the album itself, which is following The Skull's most recent effort, which I thought was the best thing Wagner had been a part of since "Manic Frustration". He had finally found the right people and the right approach, and he successfully merged the two eras of Trouble's sound into the achingly sad and heavy tone that was his and his alone.
His songs have long been consumed by the subject of death, but listening to these songs in this context, it's hard not to read subtext into them I probably shouldn't. When death is framed as 'home', the attitude makes it even harder to consider it a tragedy in this case.
"Maybe Tomorrow" was the song chosen to preview the album, and it's easy to hear why. It has the old Trouble sound to the heavy riffs, and Wagner's unique vocal provides a simple melody that's hard to forget. It's all the things we like about Wagner's music, wrapped up in a package where his diminished voice is a fitting centerpiece. A few other songs fit this same bill, showcasing Wagner's skills as a purveyor of doom no one else has ever had. His voice is more of a tortured yelp than many, sounding as pained as doom is supposed to be, the dirty old bottle of booze being used to disinfect the wound.
"If You Lost It All" is the blight on the album, a turgid ballad that never moves beyond its funereal pace, never offers up a strong melody, and feels unfinished with some of the details. On a sad and miserable album, leave it to the most miserable song of them all to be the one dragging things down.
The heavy songs are great, classic Eric Wagner doom. I mentioned "The Endless Road Turns Dark" by The Skull earlier, and it echoes through every second of this record. The names may change, but the sound and the feeling are the same. Wagner found his stride on the former, and he was continuing to move forward with this one. They are borne from the same cloth, one more mildewed by the sun than the other.
Eric Wagner was the only voice that ever got me interested in doom. I love that we get this last album to serve as a reminder of what the genre should be. I hate that this album is tied up in the reality surrounding its release, because I'm not sure if I can listen to these songs without wanting to blame him. Blame him for being reckless, black him for being stupid, blame him for all the music that won't get made now.
So yeah, this album is good. It also sucks.
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