Orange Goblin - A Eulogy for the Fans Review

wrote this for my bros at the Soda Shop. check them out.
 http://www.thesodashop.us/2013/03/16/album-review-orange-goblin-a-eulogy-for-the-fans/


by Steve Janiak
Recorded live at Bloodstock Open Air Festival in 2012, A Eulogy For The Fans is Orange Goblin’s first crack at a live album, and they do not disappoint. The warts-and-all approach suits these hell-raising English lads: it kicks off at full steam, cranked to 11, and rarely lets up. Make no mistake: this is the sound of getting your ass kicked.

Orange Goblin are the bastard children of Motörhead and Black Sabbath, with satisfying, reptilian-brain riffs and powerful, caveman wails from “Big” Ben Ward. With less of a nod to their more drug-induced, psychedelic past, A Eulogy For The Fans steamrolls through pile driver after pile driver, with two thirds of the album coming from the three previous records; Eulogy for the Damned(2012), Healing Through Fire(2007), and Thieving from the House of God(2004).

 Only two songs in, it already feels like a week-long coke binge, driving  top speed on the autobahn, passing locomotives in a blur and flying over the edge into a Valhalla of heavy metal fire. “I feel like I’m losing my mind!” Ward screams in “Ballad of Solomon Eagle.” Indeed, it feels like we’re locked together in a padded cell and our only salvation is more blistering heavy metal.

By the time I get to the classic “Time Traveling Blues,” the title track from their 1999 album, I’m transported back in time to Orange Goblin’s younger days, when their southern rock roots were shamelessly (and gloriously) on display. The only song on the entire disc with a laid back, relaxed groove, this song shows the depth that lurks under the bombast of the live Orange Goblin experience.

The carnage picks back up with “Some You Win, Some You Lose.” At some point it dawns on me that Orange Goblin have been a ‘one guitar band’ for close to 10 years, but not a drop of rock and roll fury has been left behind. Joe Hoare (guitars) and Martyn Millard (bass) fill the nooks and crannies between the big riffs like crazed Renaissance masters, while drummer Chris Turner deftly keeps the insanity on an even keel. These chaps have been doing it for quite a while now and the chemistry is thick and palpable.

Other highlights include the excellent lumbering doom of “The Fog” and the manic tension of “Acid Trial,” with its’ spooky refrain: “Nothing is Real!”

Eventually I get to the sweet dessert of the platter, the unforgettable OG of OG: “Blue Snow,” (from Time Traveling Blues) followed by “Quincy the Pigboy” and “Scorpionica” (both from the 2000 masterpiece The Big Black). While the latter two may be a bit rougher around the edges in terms of vocals, the effortless energy never wavers. The beast that is Orange Goblin came and conquered another stage and another crowd, only this time there is a live record to prove it. Well done, gentlemen.