Therapy? – Troublegum/Infernal Love [Deluxe Editions]

When Belfast three-piece Therapy? emerged in the early 90’s, they really were a breath of fresh air. The alternative scene was split into three camps; hairy grunge acts moping about themselves, proto-Brit pop bands wearing their Gran’s blouses, or the sulky shoegaze set with nothing to say. Therapy?’s short, sharp blasts of metal were given an alternative slant by merging it with a post-punk Wire/Gang of Four guitar sound (13 years before the trend became the norm with bands such as Editors, Bloc Party et al) underpinned by Fyfe Ewing’s astonishing techno influenced drumming.

Their 1992 album Nurse is without doubt the finest of their ‘90s output, thought it has a sound that was quickly cast aside for something much ballsier musically, but with an eye on the Top 40. It was perfectly captured on 1994’s Troublegum, the result of what happens when you merge Abba’s pop kacnk, dub bass lines (“Turn”) and scraping strings and screams (“Unrequited”) with the big arena metal of Metallica.

Released around the same time as Green Day’s breakthrough album, Dookie, it’s easy to see a natural correlation of the two albums, both big cross over rock LPs informed by the history of punk. But where Green Day were content to release annoying snotty punk pop and endorsing a childish attitude, Therapy? had a sinister edge through songwriter Andy Cairn’s pre-occupation with religion, alcoholism, death, self-hate and general disillusion cunningly masked beneath big choruses and an outlook beyond the metal scene they were categorised into.

“Die Laughing” is a prime example – it comes across as early 80’s new wave similar to the likes of The Police, but it’s riddled with existential angst (“Lost in a world with no reality, I’m frightened to move, I’m frightened to speak, I think I’m going insane, I can’t remember my own name”). Elsewhere, the raging “Knives” offers us “I’m gonna get drunk, come round and fuck you up” and “Hellbelly”, has a fist pumping chorus of “You just wanna be Jesus without the suffering”.

Infernal Love from two years later is a denser affair which suffered from not being as catchy, or indeed, commercial as its predecessor – and as such has lived in its shadow since. The shining hooks that made Troublegum such a success are eschewed here, apart from the heady Husker Du gone pop of “Loose”. Produced by David Holmes, who also composed all the incidental pieces between the tracks, the sound has less clarity than Troublegum and a more introspective approach to the song writing resulted in an album that’s a bit of a drag (exemplified by its many joyless ballads and an overwrought cover of Husker Du’s “Diane”).

Being ‘Deluxe’ packages, Troublegum, extends over three discs and Infernal Love, two. There’s plenty of other material to wade through. Oddities from covers of Judas Priest “Breaking the law” and an urgent rendition of Elvis “CC Rider” are worthy of a check, as are the BBC sessions of some of their earlier material – “Accelerator” and “Neck Freak” are their best tracks and are performed with vigour on these sessions, the closing two minutes of screaming “I’m fucked” on the latter is still a white knuckled thrill.

As was the norm at the time, when singles were plucked from albums, record labels used to release two CDs to increase chart potential, which tended to be stuffed with badly recorded live tracks and inappropriate remixes from electronic artists. Both of these “deluxe” releases suffer from this – drum n’ bass mixes from Photek and Sabres of Paradise’s techno tracks add nothing to the history of these albums. There is, however, a beefy industrial mix of their surprisingly convincing cover of Joy Division’s “Isolation” by agit-rap act Consolidated.

After these albums, powerhouse drummer Fyfe Ewing left the band, Therapy? became a four piece incorporating ex-Banshees member Martin McCarrick on cello and lost their way for the rest of the decade. They have since reinvigorated their sound but it’s these releases, primarily Troublegum, which their legacy will be judged on, the influence of which lives on in the likes of Biffy Clyro and every other band who merges rock, punk, metal and big ideas with equally as big choruses. Tt started here, and still sounds as fresh twenty years on.