Album: A Eulogy For The Damned
Release Date: 13/2/2012
London doom veterans return with a thunderous but much cleaner sound
Back in 2007 when Orange Goblin released their doomy opus "Healing Through Fire", frontman Ben Ward reportedly proudly announced that it was "their best body of work to date." A fantastic piece of work, at the time it seemed difficult to disagree with him. With a five year gap between then and "A Eulogy For The Damned" one would expect said album to be an unquestionnable challenge to that statement. Whilst "A Eulogy For The Damned" falls short of that admittedly ridiculously high water mark, it's certainly not the record to make Orange Goblin doom metal's answer to The Stone Roses.
Possessing a more straight- up metal sound and much more refined production, "A Eulogy For The Damned" doesn't possess the same rough and raw sound of it's predecessors, but that does little to detract from some of the more thunderous, crushing and thrilling moments on here. "Red Tide Rising" is a full- throttle assault, full of crashing cymbals and punishing drums as well as a riff that can happily count itself amongst the best the band have ever written. "Acid Trial" revolves around a glistening riff comprising of Iron Maiden- esque picking and rhythmic pounding before becoming a flurry of twanging thunder. "Death Of Aquarius" is memorably darker, a distorted dirge smothering the intro chords before the abrasive and unsettling main riff sets in.
Although noticeably inconsistent, at its best "A Eulogy For The Damned" more or less keeps all the glorious traits of Orange Goblin in tact. Pulverising riffs and drums find their way to the forefront in thrilling style, and there are grooves here to make even the most metal amongst you moving. It's worth the pennies, as always.
Download: 1) Red Tide Rising, 2) Death Of Aquarius, 3) The Fog
For Fans Of: Alabama Thunderpussy, Black Sabbath, Mastodon
7/10
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