Album Review: Orange Goblin – A Eulogy For The Damned [10 out of 10]

By Andrew Bansal

UK-based stoner metal band Orange Goblin will release their seventh studio album “A Eulogy For The Damned” on February 14th. It’s the band’s first album in five years, and their first since signing to Candlelight Records. After listening to this album, I can safely say that the band has made a great start with their new label, and I foresee a long-term relationship between them.

Even though the five-year gap since the previous album “Healing Through Fire” is quite a long one, the music on the new album is definitely worth the wait. Consisting of 10 tracks with a total duration of a little over 49 minutes, length-wise it’s a perfect album for this style of music. Each song has an identity of its own. Listening to this album is almost like reading a riveting book, with the songs as chapters of the book having their own little sub-plots, yet still connected to each other, maintaining a flow in the grand scheme of things and each one better than its predecessor. To me this is the true sign of how flawlessly good this album is.

“Red Tide Rising” is an absolutely killer start to the album, and the main riff of the song is an instant classic. Ben Ward’s vocals stay aggressive throughout the album, but at the same time his voice has a certain smoothness to it which makes it very enjoyable to listen to. This is evident right from the outset, on Red Tide Rising. I found myself rocking out to the song at first listen, and I think it’s pretty much impossible for anyone to dislike the song. Next comes “Stand For Something”, which is a little more laid back, but with some truly delightful guitar riffs and solos.

The album goes from strength to strength, and every time I feel I’ve already heard the best song on the album and nothing can come close to it, the next song comes along. Every song speaks for itself, and there is musically so much to like on each one of them that if I start describing them it would take me ages to do it. Naming favorite songs on this one is also a pointless exercise because I’ll end up naming all of them.

In terms of the musical style, even though the band is broadly categorized as stoner metal, I feel this album has sizable portions that can be called biker rock. Be it Stoner rock, biker rock, or plain old heavy metal, this album satisfies your needs whichever way you perceive it.

The album comes across as a very cohesive effort, and more importantly, the manner in which the album is mixed allows it to be cohesive. This is what makes the album sound as good as it does, the fact that no single instrument overpowers the others. Also, I love the fact that the production is not overly clean. It’s raw enough to capture the essence of this musical style, yet clean enough to enable listeners to enjoy it without feeling earache.

Overall, Orange Goblin’s “A Eulogy For The Damned” gets a perfect 10 and a solid stamp of approval from me, simply because it’s filled to the brim with boundless amounts of awesomeness.

Rating: 10/10

Related: Check out my interview with vocalist Ben Ward here.

US Release Date: February 14th 2012
Label: Candlelight Records

Track Listing:
1. Red Tide Rising
2. Stand For Something
3. Acid Trial
4. The Filthy & The Few
5. Save Me From Myself
6. The Fog
7. Return To Mars
8. Death Of Aquarius
9. The Bishops Wolf
10. A Eulogy For The Damned

Comments

comments