In an ever-changing world, one in which the foundations upon which our reality stands are constantly shifting, one thing you can be sure of is that the mighty Orange Goblin will release a superb album.
Their music is always uplifting too. This doesn’t surprise me. I interviewed Orange Goblin’s vocalist Ben Ward for Zero Tolerance magazine, and he was a most up-beat courteous gentleman.
Orange Goblin’s last two albums ‘A Eulogy For The Damned and ‘Healing Through Fire’ are classic examples of British Heavy Metal, and ‘Back From The Abyss’ continues this welcome trend.
‘Heavy Lies The Crown’ adds some prog influences to it’s heavy Viking inspired grooves but on the whole this is solid slabs of molten metal all the way. Not heavy in the sense of some negative band shouting like the Cookie Monster on helium over the sounds of a nuclear explosion. No, Orange Goblin has great vocals, and melodies, and excellent songs. There is a pure joy of all the positive aspects of heavy metal. Orange Goblin are living the heavy metal dream and grateful for it.
It I had to pick a favourite song from this album, it would the splendidly named and self-explanatory, ‘Sabbath Hex’ (great title, and surely a great name for some deserving new band out there), with its refrain of Aleister Crowley’s ‘Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law.’
This is metal as it should be, but sadly often isn’t.
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For another perspective on Orange Goblin’s Back from the Abyss, check out this review from Gruesome Greg.
