It going to be damn hard for me to be unbiased about Orange Goblin. A quick glimpse at my wardrobe will reveal a dozen or so assorted Goblin shirts hanging on the rack; a brief check on my iTunes play counter puts them damn high in the all time stakes; and I can only hazily recount the assorted pints and shorts shared with front man and lager in human form, Ben Ward. So, received wisdom will have it that any review of this far too delayed album will be biased? I will try to be objective as possible, and review A Eulogy for The Damned purely on its own merits, even though after being promised a new OG CD in ’08, ’09, 2010, and even 2011, I was ready to berate Orange Goblin for the delays. I only hope that I can be suitably objective about the new album. If you are taking the time to read this webzine, and even considering how to spend your hard earned pounds in this time of economic downturn, you deserve an honest guide.
The simple fact is, this album is fucking excellent! I’ve quickly lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Orange Goblin live, or to be more honest just about run out of fingers and toes, and every time has been excellent. This is a band that knows how to inspire a bouncing pit of booze fuelled fans to chuck their lager at the stage and their restraint to the wind, and this may be the album where at last they now manage to show that they can repeat on CD the same enthusiasm and energy they project on a live stage, and more then that, prove that they are all exceptional musicians! Not that prior albums were bad, as they are all good; it’s just that ‘A Eulogy for the Damned’ hits a whole new level of excellence. Put Orange Goblin into a search engine and you will find thousands of reviews that praise their stage presence and the excellence of their live shows; you will even find review after review of their superb, but maybe cult albums. A Eulogy for the Damned is surely the album to show they are that and so much, much more.
‘Red Tide Rising’ opens the album with a sonic battering, lead from the front of the mix by Ben Ward, a simple but hook laden serving of pure rock, devoid of pretension with a body smashing drum blast, all designed to have sweat, beer, and hair flying, a superlative slice of energy and a simplicity that can only be the result of years of practice and an unmatched skill. When ‘Stand for Something’ fires in, you realise you are not just listening to a mere pub band, but rather a tight knit group that knows how to construct a rock tune of unmatched quality. If this was ’75, hell, ’85, maybe even ’95, this tune would be blasting out of shoulder mounted stereos all over; as it is, it is a testament to the skill of the band to write, and play hook laden rock. This particular track was a ball grabbing highlight of their Christmas London Party show folks, where the bass of Millard punched the rib cage of everyone lucky enough to be present. Bloody hell, I’ve had this album for a couple of weeks now, and I’m still getting all emotional over the impact!
Simple rock fires out in the Satan’s Sadist (Al Adamson Grindhouse classic) sampling assault that is ‘The Filthy and the Few’, a flair free and better for it three minutes of biker rock, where Joe Goblin’s riff mastery struck out with the punch of a pissed off Chuck Norris, a flurry of guitars, bass and drums. The chill out factor is raised by an infinite number of notches by ‘Save Me From Myself’, where Ben Ward’s vocals alternate between a sedate Southern US drawl and his normal below. ‘Save Me From Myself’ stirs a healthy dose of Southern Rock into OG’s good time recipe, and the fun rock formula is built on with the John Carpenter worshipping track ‘The Fog’ with lyrics littered with quotes dredged from that 1980 horror classic.
Another four massive tracks finish off the album, ‘Return to Mars’, ‘Death of Aquarius’, ‘The Bishop’s Wolf’, and title track ‘A Eulogy for the Damned’, each one of which deserve repeated listens and cry out to be played live. Orange Goblin don’t try and sneak in a few weak tracks at the end of the album, rather they maintain the same level of bludgeoning goodness throughout, songs that not only blast out of the stereo, but kick live fans in the face!
It may be near impossible to separate Orange Goblin on CD from their incendiary live performances, but with the new album, they may have managed to capture their fan inspiring performances on a recording. I don’t give a shite what happens in 2012 in the world of music; The Beatles may reform and announce a 10 CD gift set with Motorhead on rhythm and Hendrix on lead with The Stones providing the riffs! The simple fact is that nothing could displace Orange Goblin from my 2012 top ten! Fucking buy it!!!
http://www.orange-goblin.com
Spenny Bullen
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