fter departing doom metal legends Trouble in 2012 , vocalist Eric Wagner , bassist Ron Holzner and drummer Jeff " Oly " Olson , formed The Skull and released their debut full-length album For Those Which Are Asleep in 2014 . Initially , the premise of The Skull ’ s formation was to go out and play tunes from the first two Trouble albums , Trouble ( 1984 ) and The Skull ( 1985 ).

Today , The Skull has developed their own fan base and became more focused on creating original material , with tentative plans to write a second full-length record after the band ’ s appearance at Reggie ’ s on March 24 .

“ When we first started , we wanted to go out and play the heavy stuff ,” Wagner began . “ Since we ’ ve been doing that , it ’ s kind of fun playing that live together . What ’ s weird is that The Skull has evolved . Sometimes we tried to do a Trouble song in the set from a later period and when we play it , it just doesn ’ t seem like us . I think with The Skull doing those first two [ Trouble ] records , we established who we are , and it allowed us to make that record [ For Those Which Are Asleep ]. We always figured that when we first started touring on this record that people just wanted to hear us play the Trouble songs . But we got a great response from the record and people actually did want to hear those songs , and they knew the lyrics .”

After For Those Which Are Asleep was released , the band did a lot of touring . In between all that , Wagner managed to somehow write a new Blackfinger record — a project he started in 2014 — tentatively scheduled for an early summer release .

With former Trouble members in the

line-up , The Skull will undoubtably be compared to its former band . “ That can ’ t be helped ,” Wagner said . “ Obviously , we ’ re going to always be compared to Trouble because I was in that band for a long time . There ’ s no way around it . The Skull is going to remind everybody of it because I was part of the writing process in Trouble . I was the one singing the songs . Even though it ’ s different , there ’ s always going to be that hint of it , that common thread through each record . But we ’ re always searching to branch out and do new things .”

The current incarnation of Trouble , with Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin at the helm , along with vocalist Kyle Thomas , have done an honorable job continuing the

band . Ambitious as it is , to this author ' s ears it ’ s just not the same Trouble without Wagner ’ s charismatic wails . “ I think it ’ s great if they ’ re [ Trouble ] having fun and doing what they want to do , because I am ,” Wagner said . “ I always just wish them the best . I think these last few years have been a very creative period for me . Blackfinger is just about to come out with a third record and then The Skull with a new one again . I ’ m having a great time and I ’ m glad that people still want to hear it .”

The Skull loves to play hometown shows , where the crowd welcomes them with open arms . " We ’ ll always be a part of it there ,” as Wagner finishes up . “ We [ Trouble ] got together in 1979 . Sometimes

in the early days the hometown band didn ’ t get treated the same as bands coming through there . It ’ s kind of weird actually . It ’ s like you said , as you get older you become an institution . I love going there . It ’ s home and it always will be . The fans have been great . I think people appreciate it when you go there and just give it up for them . Chicago is that way . They appreciate that and they like that we do that when we go there .”

And Reggie ' s is kind of our home bar in the city . I love playing there the people there are great to us , and there ’ s always a good crowd . It ’ s like our home base .”

Appearing 3 / 24 at Reggie ' s , Chicago .