Trauma

TRAUMA is highly revered by those in the know as an important evolutionary entity in the intersection of traditional heavy metal, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and the more melodically minded classic rock influenced bands on the Sunset Strip. This is one of the first thrash metal bands – responsible for the much sought after classic ‘80s album, ‘Scratch and Scream’ in 1984 (reissued in 2013) featuring killer cuts like “The Day All Hell Broke Loose” and “Lay Low.” Three decades passed before the reconfigured band reemerged in support of a re-mastered edition of their debut and delivered ‘Rapture and Wrath’ in 2015, ‘As the World Dies’ in 2018, and ‘Awakening’ in 2022. Soaring melodies and fierce riffs collide in songs that are equal parts sharp, fierce, grandiose, and theatrical. Since their formation, they’ve assembled the strongest elements of seemingly disparate strains of metal, with passion and proficiency.

TRAUMA was born in California’s Bay Area in 1980, a crucial year for metal music. It was within that fertile musical climate that TRAUMA developed a sound evoking the electric energy in the air around them. Singer Donny Hillier consumed a steady diet of Zeppelin and Sabbath and shared a love of Priest and Maiden with guitarist Mike Overton. And of course there was Trauma’s legendary early bassist, Cliff Burton. In 2013’s ‘Birth School Metallica Death: The Inside Story of Metallica,’ legendary Bay Area thrash singer Steve “Zetro” Souza of Exodus recalled seeing Trauma as a music-hungry teenager. As Zetro remembered it, several voices in the Northern California scene heralded Trauma as “the next big thing” to emerge from the Bay.