The Big Black

Putting out their first few albums on Rise Above Reords, the UK's Orange Goblin established a name for themselves in the modern scene, especially for those who appreciate stoner/doom. I think they deserve that respected status without necessarily being world famous, because their influences ranging from Pink Floyd to Black Sabbath to Trouble are evident, yet their tunes aren't totally rehashes of those bands or even other modern heavy metal bands.

So, when you examine Orange Goblin's discography, especially the early years, you'll notice they became a better songwriting team across the first three albums and they did their best on The Big Black. The first album called Frequencies From Planet Ten and the demos that are bonus tracks for the reissue of that album are easily better than other non-extreme metal albums of the late 90's but that album has less variety. It was more formulaic and easy to predict, there were upbeat metal songs like Saruman's Wish (after the intro) and then chilled out ones like Land of Secret Dreams, but that was the whole deal. Then on Time Travelling Blues the band started relying more on hooks that sounded distinct in each song, but The Big Black is where they got the best at that songwriting approach.

The Big Black is the a very well put together album and all you could want in stoner/doom metal. The first few tracks have a good musical dynamic that makes it not get tiresome to listen to. Scorpionica has a nice groovy hook for example but the bridge mellows out, while Quincy the Pigboy rocks and is one of the best Orange Goblin songs to just jam out to. There's a few more mid paced tracks that sound like they could fit on some old doom albums if they sounded a bit "doomier." 298 kg reminds me of When the Screams Come by Pentagram and R.I.P. by Witchfinder. So that kind of tells you this is an album that satisfies everyone in the stoner and doom world as I said earlier.

Turbo Elephant is a way faster song - almost punky with the riff structure, but it still has a little of that stoner/doom metal touch. Another key moment here is the song King of the Hornets with a pretty sweet bass line and groove, but finally the title track is awesome doom that'll remind you of the deep cuts from Sleep's Holy Mountain like From Beyond. Totally essential metal track here and it proves slow metal still packs a punch. The band also covered Sabbath's song Into the Void on my CD version and it's awesome. It fits the spacey doom theme of this album obviously and it was just a wise choice to include even if it is totally faithful to the original from '71.

One final strength of this album is the rehearsal-like production. It just totally adds to the laid back feel and makes you focus on the actual music rather than some fancy production job. I wish the band would have done more of this kind of thing but most of their other albums sound cleaner. The only other bands to get this style right would be The Sword and Sleep I would say. Overall, Orange Goblin delivered fantastic metal music on their third album and while it's not perfect, it's definitely up there. If you're a stoner/doom fan into Black Sabbath kind of stuff then you should hear it.

Bongs loaded? Check. Lighter in hand? Roger that. Ready for a far out journey, complete with boobs, beer, metal and fucking GROOVES? Damn right you are. Orange Goblin embodies every "stoner rock" cliche', but they are so fucking good at what they do. The Big Black is the better of the two albums I got by em (Frequencies from Planet Ten is slightly tripper, less content)... a raging slab of Kyuss influenced hard rock.

First of all, Ben Ward is a great singer in the classic sense... powerful voice, can't sing a lick and constantly wasted. Opening track Scorpionica is a rootin' tootin hell of a rock song... ditto for Turbo Effalunt and Hot Magic/Red Planet. It's like Sabbath on overdrive with a bit of Iggy thrown in for good measure. And there are RIFFS aplenty and a plethora of clean interludes clearly geared towards the sobriety challenged.

The real highlight is closing track the Big Black... can anybody say DOOM? Heavy as shit in the old school Cathedral style, I was pleasantly suprised.... and stay for the hilarious drunken Ben Ward phone conversation.. funny shit.

Man, if you got a stoner itch let Orange Goblin scratch it. One of the best bands out there keeping the Sabbath dream alive