Say what you want to about riffs — and Joe Hoare‘s got plenty of them, no doubt about it — for me, this song is all about Martyn Millard‘s bass line. The opening track from Orange Goblin‘s long-awaited A Eulogy for the Damned (review here) has one of the album’s best, and in the video below, it’s complemented by some righteous Lovecraft-based cartoons, some hallway guitar shredding, shaky-cam Ben Ward and the steady hands of drummer Chris Turner. You won’t hear me ask anything more of a music video, probably ever.

Enjoy:

A Eulogy for the Damned is due out Feb. 14 on Candlelight.

I’m a sucker for consistency, so I’m going to keep this to the same kind of format as last year’s 2011 preview — real low key, real stuff I’m actually looking forward to being released. It’s not about what band is the biggest, or who has the most hype, but about who’s kicking what ass and how much it’s happening. Pretty simple parameters we’re working with here.

If you don’t recall last year and didn’t already click that link in the paragraph above out of curiosity, here’s how it works: I take five records I”ve heard and five I haven’t, and over the course of two days, we get a list of 10 albums reportedly to come in 2012 (these things don’t always work out, as we’ll get into more tomorrow with Colour Haze) that hopefully most people can agree with or at least be only mildly outraged at.

Today, it’s the sure bets. These are records that’ll see release early this year that I’ve already heard and can vouch for. I haven’t reviewed all of them yet, but I will, so consider this a precursor to that if you want. They’re not in any order but that in which they occurred to me to write down. In any case, here goes:

Snail, Terminus: Their 2009 reunion album, Blood, has stood the test of the going-on-three years since its release on MeteorCity, and the four-piece are set to follow it up this year with Terminus, an album that hopefully doesn’t live up to its name in being their last. The songwriting, which made for ultra-memorable tracks on Blood, is just as epic here, and each cut seems to have a personality of its own while still flowing together as a whole. What you really need to know about it — it’s heavy as hell. I wouldn’t be surprised to see myself typing about it again come list time this December.

Orange Goblin, A Eulogy for the Damned: Another foreboding album title, this seventh full-length from the London doomers (review here) finds them embracing the anthemic on “The Filthy and the Few” and going full-on spooky for “The Fog.” It’s a mature album, and maybe a little too clean in terms of production, but these guys never fail to deliver, and A Eulogy for the Damned can only add to the increase in profile the last couple years has seen for Orange Goblin. When it comes down to it, they’re one of the best live acts in doom, so they can’t lose in bringing this material to the stage.

Dwellers, Good Morning Harakiri: Iota, the prior outfit of Dwellers guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano, found a small but loyal cult when they released Tales on Small Stone in 2008. I’d expect no different for Dwellers, which teams Toscano with the rhythm section of SubRosa‘s last album, bassist Dave Jones and drummer Zach Hatsis. The album balances bluesy riffs and spacey ambience with terrifying ease, saving expansive jamming for its two side-closers while bolstering a classic songwriting feel elsewhere. A great mix and a welcome return from Toscano. Full review here.

Corrosion of Conformity, Corrosion of Conformity: I’ve got this slated to be reviewed tomorrow, and next week I’ll have my Q&A with bassist/vocalist Mike Dean posted, so between that, the live review Monday, and the announcement of their headlining tour, it’s an awful lot of C.O.C. around here lately. Can’t say they didn’t earn it. Their upcoming self-titled seems to distill about 30 years of growth into 11 high-quality tracks that not only recall the trio’s Animosity-era glory days, but push them further into places they’ve never gone before. It’s a fascinating and surprising album on a lot of levels, and I think once people have a chance to hear it, they’re going to really embrace what the band is doing.

Black Pyramid, II: A song from this went up just yesterday, so I admit, it’s on my mind lately, but the second LP from Massachusetts trio Black Pyramid is one of early 2012′s highlights for sure. If you don’t believe me, you can get it yourself ahead of its release date from MeteorCity at All That is Heavy, and when you do, I think you’ll find that it’s the melodies making the songs as epic as the riffs and the tales of battles and conquests. As the final statement from this incarnation of the band, it’s also the strongest work they’ve done yet.

There’s more, obviously. No matter how much you do, there’s always more. Records from The Devil’s Blood (which had its Euro release last year but will be out in North America this month), Infernal Overdrive (review here) and Sun Gods in Exile come to mind as being particularly killer, and in the “heard some already” category, the field expands to include the likes of Blood of the Sun, Pagan Altar, Stubb, Crippled Black Phoenix and others as well, so it already looks like it’s going to be a busy year.

The real challenge though is going to be narrowing tomorrow’s speculation picks down to just five. Not sure I’m going to be able to do it, but I’ll try my best.

Stick around — more tomorrow!

The first thing one is likely to notice in listening to British doom rockers Orange Goblin’s much-anticipated seventh album and Candlelight Records debut, A Eulogy for the Damned, is the production. With the album release in Feb. 2012, it will have been nearly a full five years since the four-piece unleashed Healing through Fire, and though stylistically, one could easily categorize the new collection as an extension of the ideas of the last, there are some marked differences in the presentation. A Eulogy for the Damned, which was recorded by Jamie Dodd at The Animal Farm in the band’s native London, is noticeably cleaner-sounding across the board. Joe Hoare’s guitars come across in clear layers, occasionally self-harmonizing and providing rhythm tracks under leads, and I don’t know for certain, but the crispness of individual hits in the fills and the consistency of sound leads me to think that Chris Turner’s drums are sampled. Turner is an excellent drummer, so it could just be my (lack of) ears or the digital compression of the mp3s sent for review, but either way, even the notion speaks to the overall increase in production value that Orange Goblin have employed this time around. It’s worth emphasizing that the band’s personality – both musical and in the vocals and lyrics of frontman Ben Ward – is in no way diminished by this, and rather, Orange Goblin come across as matching the increase in profile and stature the last few years has brought with a sense of professionalism and purpose.

Their songwriting remains as stellar and memorable as ever, perhaps even more so, with standout choruses and tales of inner and outer demons recounted in hooks like “A celebration/A ceremony of sin/As the fog rolls in” from “The Fog,” one of several marked highlights on A Eulogy for the Damned. Ward’s vocals have never been technically minded – he’s more frontman/vocalist than singer — but his melodic sensibility has grown, and he carries the verses and choruses of these songs with ease; charisma apparent right from the launch of leadoff cut “Red Tide Rising,” which commences with wave sounds (presumably the red tide in the title) and an introduction of the riff from Hoare before the whole band kicks in. It’s one of the faster songs on A Eulogy for the Damned, and a solid statement of intent as far as what the record is looking to accomplish – light on bullshit, heavy on rock. Bassist Martyn Millard makes it, though. Each pre-chorus finds him running circles around Hoare’s riffing with fills worthy of Sabbath at their peak, and as the song is catchier musically than vocally (at least until the delayed chorus kicks in), Millard’s role is all the more pivotal. “Red Tide Rising” is one of the longer tracks on A Eulogy for the Damned, but it sounds written specifically to be played live, and brims with an energy that’s the perfect, exciting start to an album for which fans have clamored for years. They’re preaching to the choir, but the choir will like what they hear.

Without a dip in pace, “Stand for Something” leads the momentum in a more melodic, less bruising direction. The lines, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger in the long run/And I’m not afraid to die,” begin the second verse, and while one doesn’t often think of uplifting lyricisms as the first aspect of Orange Goblin’s work — though one recalls “Hard Luck” from 2004’s Thieving From the House of God as precedent — the song’s “stand for something or fall for nothing” ethic feels sincere and foreshadows the sense of self-examination later to come on “Save Me From Myself,” while also maintaining the forward motion and groove of the opener and setting the stage for the burlier “Acid Trial,” which puts the band most in their element, both musically and lyrically. Hoare’s leads are among the album’s best, not to mention the solo, and Turner’s drums smoothly clear the way for what might otherwise be awkward transitions from the verse to the chorus, stepping back as Ward’s vocals do what only British rockers can do convincingly in pronouncing that, “Nothing is real” toward the end of the song. Seriously, have you ever heard an American say that and not rolled your eyes? I haven’t. But Ward can pull it off, and by the time he does, A Eulogy for the Damned has already steamrolled through three of its 10 component tracks, and while one might think that structurally, it’s time to ease up on the throttle, Orange Goblin only push further with what stands out among their entire catalog as one of the most anthemic tracks of their career.

“The Filthy and the Few” is nothing if it’s not an apt look at the band’s followers and the band themselves. Beginning with a sample from the 1969 thriller Satan’s Sadists that summarizes the anti-establishment ethos of the harmlessness of smoking grass and the dickheadedness of those police and others who’d stand in the way of doing so – it’s a long quote, or I’d include it here in its entirety – “The Filthy and the Few” is one of the shortest songs on A Eulogy for the Damned at 3:32, but it does so much work in such a concise manner that it’s hard to consider it anything but the crux of the album’s perspective. The chorus, “Back down the open road/The only road we’ve ever known/Step aside, ‘cause we’re coming through/We are the filthy and the few” is a landmark, and it’s propelled by a grown-up punker’s pace that demands fealty. Orange Goblin at their most Orange Goblin, perhaps, but also pushing forward the idea of what that means. They’re a band whose every studio outing has presented something different, and ultimately, A Eulogy for the Damned, whatever aspects it might share with their other work, does so as well. “The Filthy and the Few” takes the trod-on mentality of “The Ale House Braves” from Healing through Fire or even “Some You Win, Some You Lose” from Thieving From the House of God and turns it to forceful and believable triumph. Having now reached the apex and taken the push as far as it can go, Orange Goblin know it’s time to pull back on the pace and move into the album’s next phase.

Read more »

Moments ago, as I was trying to think of a headline for this post, I recalled that I’d visited Redscroll Records in Wallingford, Connecticut, last year around this time. Creature of habit that I am, the date on that post is Oct. 25, 2010. Here we are, a year and three days later and I’m chronicling pretty much the same trip. Surprisingly, there was no band overlap. Small favors, I guess.

It had been or at least felt like a while since I did a good round of caution-and-common-sense-to-the-wind record shopping, which I find is good for the soul, and especially since my prior visit to the store had come up empty, I was stoked to make out pretty good this time. You can probably see the stack in the picture above, but in case you don’t feel like clicking to enlarge it, here’s the rundown:

Aldebaran, Buried Beneath Aeons
Cable, Cable
Desert Sessions, Vol. I/Vol. II
Desert Sessions, Vol. III/Vol. IV
Dove, Dove
Grayceon, All We Destroy
Orange Goblin, Time Travelling Blues
Patton Oswalt, Finest Hour
Reverend Bizarre, Death is Glory… Now!
Sunride, Magnetizer
VA, Judge Not…
Wooden Shjips, Dos
Wolves in the Throne Room, Celestial Lineage

Of those, I already own the Desert Sessions, Dove and Orange Goblin records — but I still have my reasons for buying each. The Orange Goblin was used, and as I looked at it on the shelf, I discovered it was the Japanese version of the record, with their cover of Trouble‘s “Black Shapes of Doom” for a bonus track. That cover originally appeared on the Bastards Will Pay tribute, and since I’ve never had any luck tracking down a copy of that (it’s in my canon of daily eBay searches), I figured all the more excuse to get the import on the cheap.

The Dove, on the other hand, is probably the least reasonable of the repeat offenses. Where the Desert Sessions stuff was priced new, it was also like $12 a pop, and screw it, if I’m already spending money, I’ll hit that up. I looked so hard for those CDs the first time around, I don’t mind having doubles. For the Dove disc, though, there really is no argument. It was there, it was used, and I bought it. It’s out of print, and I might use it in a trade or something at some point — hey, if anyone wants to switch it for that Trouble tribute, drop a line — but beyond that, it was an impulse and an excuse to revisit the album from the Floor offshoot, which I hadn’t heard in years.

Grayceon was one of two discs I knew I wanted to pick up going into the trip — the other was Rwake, which Redscroll was out of — and since I’ve had those songs stuck in my head for the last month, I was glad to have the full version of the album to sate that. That wasn’t used, but it is now. The Wolves in the Throne Room is also their latest record, which I had every intent of reviewing but never got around to, but only had a disc and top liner for. There’s always one or two tracks on their albums that justifies a purchase, and now I can take my time finding out which ones those are on Celestial Lineage. I don’t feel as bad for not reviewing it if I go out and buy the record.

I bought Sunride‘s Magnetizer (1998, Boundless Records) because of a discussion on the forum of the worst stoner rock albums ever. Not that it’s mentioned in there, but Sea of Green is, and I got the names mixed up in my head. I had wanted to buy it just to hear what the worst stoner rock ever sounded like. As Magnetizer isn’t even close to the worst stoner rock I’ve ever heard, I can’t help but feel like I inadvertently won out.

The Wooden Shjips I got because I need to review their new album, West, for work and wanted something to compare it to. It was used, as was the Underdogma Records compilation, Judge Not…, which proved yet again that I don’t like comps until they’re out of print and desirable for their obscurity. I don’t remember the last time I heard Ironboss (guns don’t kill people, they do), so I’ll take it, and with Gammera, Pale Divine, early The Quill and Puny Human on there, all the better. Two discs of heavy rock I didn’t own prior. Six bucks.

Buying Cable in Connecticut had some oddball novelty to me, and the 1997 comp of their early tracks was used and is raw as hell, so that was a yes, and I didn’t even know Patton Oswalt had a new record, but there it was. Since on his last special, he was talking all about his wife being pregnant, I figured this would be his “I have a kid now” material (every comic has it), and sure enough, it is. Still good. The Reverend Bizarre and Aldebaran discs were impulse buys — I grabbed the Aldebaran with all the forethought of snatching a pack of Reese’s on the way out of the grocery store — but reckless abandon is no fun if it’s not actually reckless, so there you go.

The Patient Mrs. — bless her heart — had come in a few moments prior to collect me so we could make our way back south to Jersey, but as we were leaving, the dudes behind the counter informed that they’ll be doing a special Black Friday sale post-Thanksgiving, opening at 6AM with markdowns on new and used CDs and vinyl — which, at this point, takes up a good deal of the room they have. Turns out I’ll be up that way for the holiday, so if I’m not all drowned out in vino and tryptophan, I may just make that happen for myself. Seems like it could be fun, anyway.

More info on that and the store is here, if you’re interested. I’ll spare you the lecture on preserving independent record-buying culture, because I think you probably know it by now, but anyway, they do good work.

If you missed Orange Goblin frontman Ben Ward‘s weekly studio updates on the creation of the band’s new album, check them out here. Today, the band announced a February 2012 release for A Eulogy for the Damned, which will be their long-awaited Candlelight Records debut. I can’t fucking wait.

Supporting Orange Goblin on their UK run will be Grifter, who are on board for all but the Irish shows.

This comes right off the PR wire:

Orange Goblin will release their brand new studio album, A Eulogy for the Damned, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 in the UK/rest of world and Feb. 14, 2012, in the US. This date is the same day as Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut album in 1970!

A Eulogy For The Damned is the band’s seventh studio album but first for new label home, Candlelight Records. The 10-track offering was recorded at The Animal Farm studio in South London, UK, produced and engineered by Jamie Dodd and mastered by two-time Grammy-nominated Pink Floyd engineer Andy Jackson at Tube Mastering. A Eulogy For The Damned will be released on CD and limited edition colored vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

A Eulogy for the Damned 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 Bishop’s Wolf
10. A Eulogy for the Damned

To celebrate the release of the new album, Orange Goblin will hit the road in April 2012 for the A Eulogy for the Damned UK & Ireland Tour. Dates for this are as follows:

04/07 Desertfest @ The Underworld London
04/08 The Fleece Bristol
04/09 The Old Bell Derby
04/10 Classic Grand Glasgow
04/11 Sound Control Manchester
04/12 The Garage Swansea
04/13 The White Rabbit Plymouth
04/14 o2 Academy Oxford
04/20 The Pint Dublin
04/21 Spring & Airbrake Belfast

Orange Goblin will also be appearing live at the following locations later this year (with more festivals to be announced soon):

11/13/2011 Candlefest Moho Live, Manchester
12/03/2011 Hard Rock Hell V Prestatyn, North Wales
12/17/2011 The Underworld Camden, London
01/14/2012 Club Zeljeznicar Zagreb, Croatia
6/15–17/2012 Hellfest Clisson, France (Exact date TBA)
8/11/2012 Bloodstock Open Air Fest Derbyshire

The thought occurred to me to make the parenthetical headline for this post, “In Which Ben Ward Recounts and Summarizes Orange Goblin‘s Sundry Misadventures During the Recording Sessions for Their New Album,” but I think “The Grand Finale” works just as well. Given the much-appreciated effort on Mr. Ward‘s side in sending over these updates each week for the last month and a half, “Grand” seems like just the right word.

Sad as I am to see this series end, I’ll take my comfort in knowing we’re that much closer to the next Orange Goblin record. What follows is a summary of the band’s time in the studio. Thanks again to Ward for putting these updates together, and to Candlelight Records for making it happen. This is already one of my most anticipated releases of 2012.

If you want to see the now-complete series in its entirety, click here. Orange Goblin is Ward on vocals, guitarist Joe Hoare, bassist Martyn Millard and drummer Chris Turner.

Thanks for reading:

Orange Goblin – Studio Summary

Well, here we are. Six weeks on from when we first set foot in The Animal Farm recording studio in Bermondsey, London and we have another Orange Goblin long-player in the can. It’s been a very different, almost relaxed affair and the breaks between sessions have been great, allowing us to take the songs away and scrutinise them before going back and adding to them or changing them where we saw fit.

I think we’ll all miss the studio a bit. It became our little haven for those six weeks and a chance to get away from the real world! A place where it became acceptable to drink five beers before lunchtime and eat cold pizza until you felt nauseous! A place where we heard tales of how often Brain Harvey (ex-East 17 numbskull!) farts, how amazing the “Guitarminator” is and how we should never, ever ask the producer for a “laptop mix!” I certainly won’t miss the stress of trying to get the songs finished and writing the lyrics though… That can wait another five years now!!!

I have to take the opportunity to say a massive thank you to Jamie [Dodd], Ville and Mat [Leppanen] at the studio for their understanding and letting us come and go as we have done, without them this album would never have happened. Here are a few of the highs and lows of the last 6 weeks recording the album:

HIGHS:

1 – Getting all the rhythm tracks done within the first five days of recording. Not that this wasn’t expected as Chris has never taken more than a couple of days and Martyn is usually pretty spot on too. We afforded ourselves a bit more time for the drums and bass this time though as writing the songs was only completed on the day before Jamie first hit ‘record.’ Anyway, spurred on by silly amounts of Boddingtons and steak-flavoured crisps (chips to the Americans!) the rhythm section got the job done and to celebrate we all went out for a victory drink in honour!! This meant an all night session in the Crobar, far too may beers and sambucas, a massive dent in all our wallets and an even bigger hangover the day after!!!

2 – Guitars and vocals going as smoothly as they did. What with all the coming and going of various people at various time, Joe and I managed to keep focus and get our parts done in time too. We set up a routine of him doing a track, then me doing one, so neither of us got weighed down with too much and we both got a regular break. Jamie was great in this respect as it meant him having to go back and forth with setting up the guitars and the vocal booth but it worked out in the end. We didn’t do anything in particular to celebrate but had a constant supply of cider, red wine, lager and whiskey, which always helps! I have to give special mention to the afternoon I locked myself away in a different room with the sole intention of completing lyrics for one of the songs. An hour later Joe burst into the room to find me fast asleep with absolutely nothing written!!

3 – The day of the photo-shoot. I can’t remember the exact date but the shoot went really well and it was a nice, sunny day (rare in London during the summer!). What was amazing was the number of screaming, teenage girls that had gathered at the studio gates who we joked must be waiting for us! We later discovered that they were there for a teenage boy band that were rehearsing (miming into their hairbrushes!) next door. As I left the complex in my car that afternoon a couple of young girls asked if I would smuggle them into the studio in the boot (trunk to the Americans!) of my car… I’ll leave you to make your own sick joke up here!! PS – I didn’t!

4 – PIZZA DICE!!! This was an absolute godsend!! It was established in the first couple of days of recording that there were only two local pizza companies that were prepared to deliver to a recording studio on the fourth floor of an industrial complex so we decided to try them both. The first was Tower Pizza, who didn’t make a very good impression by bringing us completely the wrong order, not that we complained as it meant we got more. That was until we opened the box and tasted it!! I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was the worst pizza I have ever had. All four of us were starving but we threw 90 percent of the order away as it was so bad. I’m pretty sure chicken isn’t supposed to be green! Next day we tried Pizza Dice and hey presto, it was fantastic!! The order was right (always a good start!) the pizza tasted fresh and the chicken wings were not green! Plus, they also sent ice cold Coca-Cola, which went perfect with the whiskey!!

LOWS:

1 – Tower Pizza. (see above)

2 – Joe waking me up. (see above)

3 – The crowds of teenage girls NOT being into Orange Goblin. (see above)

4 – The studio being based on the fourth floor and having a no-smoking policy, which meant treks downstairs and outside every time we needed a cigarette! At least it gave us a chance to work off the beer and pizza!

It’s been fun writing these updates for The Obelisk and I’d like to thank JJ for posting them each week. All that remains now is for us to get the final mixes, master the damned thing and get it out there for the world to hear! It will be out by the end of March 2012 and I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait! Thanks for reading!

Ben Ward, 22nd September 2011.

Earlier this week, Orange Goblin frontman Ben Ward described sending tracks across the Atlantic to Roadsaw singer Craig Riggs so he could record a vocal guest appearance. I took that as a cue to hit up Riggs (who also tour managed Orange Goblin on their recent American tour), to see if he had anything to say about the process. The resulting couple paragraphs comprise what I’m thinking of as a bonus track to this whole series, snuck in just before the conclusion this coming week.

Hope you enjoy. To see all the updates on Orange Goblin‘s recording progress, click here. Thanks to Riggs for taking the time out:

After joking in the public eye (Facebook) with Mr. Ward about having me sing some backups on the new OG record, I was pleased to see an email that contained 10 fresh tracks from the band. Ben gave me few instructions on just what they wanted and which songs to sing on. “Focus on these two,” he said. So I went into Mad Oak Recording Studio (I know the owner) with engineer Joe Slibia. We worked on the two songs, and worked on a few more. I put backups on five songs and sent them back UK way. I let Ben know that I was going to lay down as much as I could in the day and the band could use what they wanted and toss out the rest. They seemed pretty happy with most of the stuff, and went onto mixing. So I will soon find out what made the cut, and what hit the floor. I for one am very excited.

This new OG record is going to kick ass! from what I gathered, it’s like a perfect blend of Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, yet remains completely Orange Goblin. There is some great melodies and a fine mix of tempos. Even the rough mixes I heard sound killer. Everyone hit this shit at the top of their game. I got excited about the latest Lo-Pan record when I first heard it. I feel the same way about this OG record. I can’t wait till everyone can hear the fuckin’ rock that is Orange Goblin.

This week, Orange Goblin frontman Ben Ward reveals that tracking for the band’s new album (no title revealed yet) is complete and that mixing has begun. As such, it’s sad to say, but the series of studio updates is coming to a close. One more next week, and then we’ll actually have to sit and wait for the record to come out next March, which suddenly feels a really long time away.

Thanks once again to Ward for sending in these updates and photos. If you’ve missed past installments, you can find them here. Orange Goblin is Ward, guitarist Joe Hoare, bassist Martyn Millard and drummer Chris Turner. The new album is being produced by Jaime Dodd at The Animal Farm studio in South London. Here’s the latest:

Orange Goblin – Album Recording – Week 5

OK, so these blogs are getting harder and harder to write as week by week we get less and less to do and there is more and more sitting around whilst Jamie [Dodd, engineer] starts setting up mixes. So this week I’m gonna take you back to last Tuesday when I sent the recorded files off to Craig Riggs from Roadsaw at his studio in Boston. We’d all been very keen to have Riggs involved in this album with some backing vocals so when he agreed, we couldn’t wait to hear what he’d done. By Friday evening he’d starting returning the files and I have to say we were all blown away by what he’d done. It sounds great! First thing Saturday morning and Jamie had uploaded all of Riggs’ work into the mix and everything was right with the world! It was just Joe and I at the studio again as Martyn has flown out to Egypt for a two week holiday with his girlfriend and Chris was at home looking after his boys.

Both Joe and I got to work and I finished the last vocal track (“Return to Mars”) and Joe put all the finishing touches to his guitar parts so we were all done tracking!! This led to a mini-celebration involving large amounts of cider, beer and that dreaded pizza again (which isn’t so bad after said amounts of cider!). As we started getting ready for mixing, there was much swearing and shouting at the TV as Liverpool crashed to their first defeat of the season in the football. I think this was all a little bit odd for the photographer that turned up to do some shots for a Terrorizer magazine studio report and the guy from Jagermeister who turned up to interview Joe and I about the recording process so far! Despite this we all went home happy and ready to start recording keyboards first thing on Sunday morning.

Chris was back today but Joe wasn’t around as he had to attend a Christening. We were expecting to get the keyboards down today but unfortunately, Matt, the keyboard player couldn’t make it (he’s coming in to do it next weekend now!), so Chris and I sat around very, very bored whilst Jamie went over and over the same song adjusting snare drums sounds, cymbals, kick drums and all that kind of stuff!! We didn’t hang around too long, preferring to leave it in Jamie’s capable hands. We have one more full weekend of mixing to do next week (and the keyboards) and then it will be complete. I think a week away from these songs will do us all good now as we are bordering on overkill at the moment. So, next week will be the last report and then the process of mastering and preparing the artwork and planning a marketing campaign begins, all leading up to the release of this album in March, 2012!

Ben Ward, 14th September, 2011

Looks like things are starting to wind down for our heroes The Goblins. As vocalist Ben Ward reports, the recording is almost finished for the band’s as-yet-untitled seventh studio album, and once that’s completed, it’s on to mixing and glory. It’s been great keeping up with Ward‘s reports, and this one’s no exception. In it, he details wrapping up the guitars, vocal recording, a pride-bursting photo shoot, and much more.

If you missed past installments, click here. Orange Goblin is Ward, guitarist Joe Hoare, bassist Martyn Millard and drummer Chris Turner. Please enjoy this latest update:

Orange Goblin — Album Recording – Week 4

We’d had another week to prepare for the recording again and we all arrived bright and early Saturday morning ready for a photo shoot. Our good friend Oran Tarjan turned up to take the shots and we spent a few hours around the studio complex doing shoots in various locations. As the day wore on a massive crowd of teenage girls had gathered at the studio gates and we were convinced they must all be there to catch a glimpse of their heroes Orange Goblin! It was only a bit later on that we found out that a young boy-band were shooting a video in the studio next door and they weren’t waiting for our autographs after all! With our egos in tatters, Joe set about getting a large chunk of his work done before I got down to some work, allowing the rest of the band to make suggestions for certain parts and we ended up with two more songs finished, both of which are very different from my normal vocal delivery. This album is really taking shape and it’s dawning on us all that there is some stuff that we have never really tried before but all agree that it works really well and I think the OG fans will like it too. Chris finished all his percussion parts (MORE COWBELL!!!) and we resisted the urge to order yet another nasty pizza from the only place in South East London willing to deliver to us, in favour of finishing early and going home for a decent meal! This seemed like a great idea until Joe, my son Max and I got stuck in massive traffic jams due to some rioters clashing with the police in Mile End and all the roads being closed. At least my son had fun counting the police riot vans rushing to the scene! We eventually got home and A LOT of ice cold beer soon helped me forget the traffic misery!

Sunday was more of the same, really, so not a great deal to report, except that Chris wasn’t in as he was celebrating his seventh wedding anniversary by taking his wife out for the day and Martyn showed up before heading off to a party which was also being attended by Su Pollard of Hi-De-Hi fame (…don’t ask!) During Martyn’s brief stay he did crack us up with his tales of woe which involved ranting about inappropriate party attire, overpriced, deflated balloons and a very expensive melted birthday cake. Joe and I eventually managed to regain composure to get within a whisker of being finished with the aid of some cheap lager and Scotch whiskey! Producer Jamie [Dodd] burned us some CDs to take home and listen to and we arranged some rough mixes to be sent to a good friend of ours in Boston who will be supplying some guest vocals on a few tracks this week. I have to say at this stage that everything is sounding better than ever and apart from the odd verse here and there (which I plan to re-sing this weekend), the vocals sound great! By the end of this Saturday (10^th) we should have everything recorded and mixing will start first thing on Sunday!

So another weekend gone and we’re another few steps closer to having the album finished! A few important lessons have been learned this week, important things about recording techniques and ways we can improve our performance in the studio and on stage. But, I think the most important thing we learned is this – DO NOT get Martyn Millard to organise a surprise birthday party!

Ben Ward, 6th September, 2011

Things are starting to take shape in London as Orange Goblin continue working on their new album. This week, Ben Ward sends an update as the process of recording his vocals has begun. Drummer Chris Turner has finished his tracks, as has bassist Martyn Millard, so we join the process with just the vocals and some of Joe Hoare‘s guitar to go.

If you missed them or would like a refresher, the first studio update is here and the second is here. Thanks once again to Ben Ward and to Candlelight Records for making this happen.

Orange Goblin – Album Recording – Week 3

After two very productive weekends recently we wanted to keep the momentum going so Joe and I were at the studio first thing Saturday morning, eager to get started with more guitars and finally some vocals. I had every intention of being good and sticking to hot tea with lemon and honey to look after my throat but after an hour of twiddling my thumbs whilst Joe added guitar tracks I gave in and had to have some cider! I then convinced myself that I should have some red wine in order to warm the vocal chords up! It worked too as I was soon in the vocal booth (hotter than a sauna!) and was belting stuff out, all of which sounded pretty cool. By the end of the day I’d got three songs finished, including the album opener which I’d consider the hardest of all the vocal tracks. Martyn turned up in the afternoon and spent his time yelling at the TV, eating pizza and keeping me updated with the football scores as I was trapped in the sauna! Whilst I took breaks between songs (for more cider and pizza!), Joe carried on with more basic guitar and solos and at the end of the day the whole album was really starting to take shape.

Joe was already at the studio when I arrived on Sunday morning and continued to work whilst I tried (but failed) to finish writing all the lyrics! I still have a week for this so I’m not panicking just yet! Chris and Martyn showed up a bit later on and between sandwiches, microwave meals and more booze we managed to get another two vocal tracks recorded so by the end of Sunday, Joe was about 85 percent done with guitars and I was 50 percent done with the vocals. We also received some new artwork ideas and a new logo design from our friend James Isaac (Jimbob from the band Taint) who is handling the artwork for the album. I have to say we are all delighted with what we have seen so far and we’re really excited about what the final artwork will look like. All the songs finally have titles but we have yet to decide on a final title or running order. I can reveal that the 10 songs on the album are titled as follows: “Red Tide Rising,” “The Fog,” “Acid Trial,” “Stand for Something,” “The Filthy & The Few,” “Death of Aquarius,” “The Bishops Wolf,” “Return to Mars,” “A Eulogy for the Damned” and “Save Me From Myself.”

At the end of Sunday, we burned rough mixes of all 10 songs to CD and had a listen in the car going home and I have to say that it already sounds absolutely huge! I genuinely believe that this is the best Orange Goblin material ever and can’t wait for people to hear the finished product and get the chance to play some of this new material live! Next week we hope to finish all the vocals and guitars which will leave us to add all the bits and bobs like keyboards, etc. We also have a photo shoot and some press to deal with next weekend, so until then…………………………

Ben Ward, 30th August, 2011

I think when this series of updates on the recording of Orange Goblin‘s yet-untitled new album is over, I might have to ask frontman Ben Ward to continue filling us in on both his drunken misadventures and the English football league. In this second (and massively entertaining) installment of the studio diary, Mr. Ward details his preferred hangover-curing breakfast, progress on the guitar and bass tracks, and several well-celebrated victories.

Last week’s update is here. Orange Goblin is Ward, bassist Martyn Millard, guitarist Joe Hoare and drummer Chris Turner. More to come, and in the meantime, dig it:

Orange Goblin – Album Recording – Week 2

After a very successful first three days in the studio we all went away and had four whole days off to listen to what we had recorded and decide if any changes to the drum tracks needed to be made, but I think we were all 100 percent happy with the work that Chris had done and by Friday when we arrived back at the studio, Martyn continued laying down his bass tracks, quickly adding to the good stuff he’d done last weekend as well. The break in recording also gave me a good chance to go away and listen to the songs and make sure that the lyrics and vocal melodies are going to work when it finally comes to laying them down. I’ve now got finished lyrics for seven of the 10 tracks, which leaves me with two full weeks to write words and melodies for three songs! Even by my standards, this should be easy enough! Martyn concentrated long enough Friday to get all his parts done despite the rest of us trying to put him off with the temptation of beer, cider and pizza! We all left there Friday night confident that we were well ahead of schedule so Chris and I went back to mine and celebrated this with more beer and whiskey!

Saturday morning, I was up early (and hungover!) and went for a breakfast fit for a king (steak, poached eggs, fried potatoes, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes – Thanks Tom!). This was the perfect stomach lining for a day on the ale! I didn’t actually attend the studio on Saturday as the English football season has started now and I had a ticket to see Liverpool play at Arsenal at the Emirates stadium in London and Liverpool won 2-0!! I honestly had intended to go to the studio after the game but because Liverpool won, there was much celebrating to do and the rest of the band accepted that I wouldn’t drop by! Whilst I was away Joe began laying down his guitar tracks (I’m amazed he managed this, as Martyn was running around the studio celebrating the fact that his team, QPR, had also won that afternoon!) After a while of working on different tones and sounds Joe cracked on and made some very good progress. By the time I got to the studio on Sunday he was well over half way through his basic rhythm tracks and everything was sounding awesome!!

Martyn and I spent the whole day listening to Joe plough through his rhythm tracks and deciding where we needed to multi-layer the guitars and where to keep it simple. I think Joe has a very good sense of where he needs to do stuff and where to drop out and I feel it adds a lot to the overall sound of Orange Goblin albums. Chris never made it to the studio on Sunday as he had family business to attend to but he made a point of sending us messages that his team, Wolves, had won again and were in fact top of the league!! Before we left the studio we had to load all our drums and bass gear out of the studio as they are now done with! We’ll be back again next weekend for Joe to add his leads and for me to start doing vocals on all the songs that have finished lyrics, if this all goes to plan then the following weekend should be spent finishing vocals and guitars and adding the finishing touches (keyboards, percussion and any other little bits and pieces that may need doing!). Once that is done we start the mixing!!! All in all another very productive weekend and three much-needed points for Liverpool, QPR and Wolves. I don’t think all our teams have ever won on the same weekend before………..must be a good sign!!!

Ben Ward, 23rd August 2011

I could not be more stoked to bring you this — an exclusive studio update from vocalist Ben Ward himself on the recording process for Orange Goblin‘s first full-length album in four years! The plan is to have a couple installments over the next few weeks as the band lays down tracks at The Animal Farm in South London, so we’ll all be able to keep up with them as they finish the record. Fucking. Awesome.

Here’s the latest, straight from Mr. Ward:

Orange Goblin – Album Recording – Week 1

It’s fair to say that since we returned home from the US tour in mid-June we have been working very hard on piecing together the plethora of riffs and ideas that we’ve accumulated over the past four years since we recorded Healing Through Fire. Rehearsals have been intense and the only respite we had was a weekend performing at UK Sonisphere Festival alongside the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Motörhead, Slipknot, Mastodon and more…

Last Thursday, the evening before we started recording, we finally put the final touches to the 10th song in preparation for the next Orange Goblin record. This will be our seventh studio album and first for our new home, Candlelight Records. The label have shown great patience with us, waiting over two years for us to finally deliver an album, so I hope we can repay their faith! I’m pretty confident, as the material seems to be a real mix of everything people have come to appreciate about Orange Goblin. The material is heavier, darker and at the same time catchier and as psychedelic as anything we have written before. Whether that comes across during the recording… only time will tell. Lyrically, there is no real theme as there was with Healing Through Fire, and I am having fun writing some typical, fantasy-type heavy metal lyrics, kinda like Geezer Butler did for Sabbath!

We are working in a completely different way this time around. In the past we have locked ourselves away for two to three weeks at a time to record but due to work commitments that wasn’t ever a possibility this time around (none of us earn a living from doing this band so we all have to earn a crust doing other things to pay our rent and feed our families!). We had to find a studio that would be willing to let us work over a period of seven consecutive weekends, as well as let us leave our gear set up. Luckily we found one, almost on our doorstep. We recorded a Sabbath cover at The Animal Farm studio in South London last year for a Metal Hammer magazine compilation, so we knew that we would be OK going back there and working with a young producer/engineer called Jamie Dodd. Jamie is a fan of stuff like High on Fire, Mastodon, Monster Magnet, Metallica, etc., so he knows the sort of thing we are trying to achieve with this album.

Anyway, last Friday we started work at The Animal Farm and whilst I went out to stock up on the studio essentials (beer, wine, whiskey, vodka and crisps!), Chris [Turner] started setting up the drums as Jamie set about miking the kit up. By the time I got back with the booze, everyone was ready for a drink and Chris was ready to start getting some drum sounds which after a while were exactly what we were looking for… that huge John Bonham/Bill Ward-like kick and snare with plenty of fizz in the cymbals! In no time Joe [Hoare, guitar] and Martyn [Millard, bass] had set up too and we were ready to start recording. Chris is like a machine when he gets in the studio and before we knew it he had laid down four of the 10 drum tracks, alongside guide guitar and bass tracks and my vocal guide for good measure.

We arrived back at the studio on Saturday morning and Chris proceeded to lay down the final six drum tracks (even managing to record alternative takes of every song in case of a disaster!), meaning that he had finished all his basic parts by the end of play on Saturday evening. He will have some percussion parts to do later in the process but that will come at the ‘bells and whistles’ stage! We contemplated setting up the bass so Martyn could get started but Jamie decided we should call it a day there and resume first thing on Sunday. We didn’t need too much persuading on that and took it as a green light to go out to the Crobar (famous London rock bar) and spend the night getting wasted in celebration of Chris finishing his drum tracks — which we did in style!

Sunday morning hurt a little bit, but by the time we had all reconvened at the studio, Martyn was ready to start laying down his thunder! Using his massive Orange bass rig his sound is awesome! It can do everything you need, from the Steve Harris galloping basslines in Maiden to the smoother grooves of Geezer Butler’s bass on tracks like “Solitude.” During the course of the day he managed to get three or four tracks done before we decided that we were well ahead of schedule and spent the rest of the evening burning discs to go away and listen to until next weekend, when we will carry on. I fully expect Martyn to be done by the end of Saturday which will mean it’s Joe’s turn to start piling on the riffs and playing around with tones and whatever guitarists do!! I’ll let you know how we get on next week!

Ben Ward, 16th August 2011

At this point, Orange Goblin‘s holiday shows and tours are the stuff of legend. Like rehab in reverse. I’ve never been fortunate enough to attend one myself, but my understanding is they keep a cooler nearby with a few spare livers, just in case anyone’s should give out before the night is through.

It’s a little bittersweet this year, though, since as a semi-proud Jersey Boy, I’m used to seeing Solace taking part in the debauchery. Nonetheless, the show must go on, and joining Orange Goblin at the Underworld in Camden, are Gentlemans Pistols and Sigiriya, who’ve also confirmed a September release for their recently-reviewed album, Return to Earth. More to come on that, but in the meantime, here’s the flier for the show:

I didn’t know what to expect in terms of the crowd this past Friday at Santos Party House, knowing that a few of NYC‘s usual suspect-type show-goers had made their way down to Maryland Deathfest, which was also running this weekend, but by the time Orange Goblin went on, the place was packed, and even for Kings Destroy, who opened the night up at around 7:45PM, there was a good, eager crowd happy to soak up as much doom as possible.

In that regard, Kings Destroy completely delivered. I know I’m nowhere near impartial when it comes to these guys, having released their (fucking excellent) And the Rest Will Surely Perish album on The Maple Forum (the band still has copies for sale here), but they just keep getting better. Their new bassist was right in the pocket, and of all the times I’ve seen them, I don’t think drummer Rob Sefcik has ever sounded better. He kept the pacing of the songs down and gave Chris Skowronski and Carl Porcaro‘s guitars plenty of room to breathe, but still hit heavy and clean on the toms, adding no shortage of thunder to the proceedings. You could feel the air move.

They had one yet-unnamed new song on offer, which was their closer, and though vocalist Steve Murphy later told me they played it too fast, the track had a cool, later-Sabbath vibe that sat well next to album cuts like “XXY” and “The Mountie.” I dug it, anyway, but I guess that was bound to happen. Kings Destroy groove like few are bold enough to do in New York, and I’m even gladder to call them friends than I am to plug the hell out of their record every chance I get. They’re only getting better.

It was kind of a funny circumstance, but I’ve only been to Santos Party House twice now (this show and when Weedeater came through in February), and Brooklyn psych outfit Naam played both shows. The trio — who are on most if not all of the tour with Orange Goblin and The Gates of Slumber — had a synth organist on stage with them, and it really filled out their sound. They said he was doing a couple shows as part of the band, and Naam are a force on stage anyway, but this put them in a different league altogether, with guitarist/vocalist Ryan Lugar‘s tone being excellently complemented and filled out by the sustained organ sounds.

And as regards Naam, I can’t think of another way to say it: bassist John Preston Bundy has one of the best doombeards in NYC. That thing is good, and he clearly knows it. As Naam wound down their set with the epic title-track from their Kingdom EP, his vocals complemented Lugar‘s and the resultant swirl was even more visceral for the organ sounds. Naam was probably the odd band out among the three doomier acts on the bill, but if it bothered them, they never let on, and the hometown crowd — which unless I’m mistaken included a few family members who gathered around for pictures after their set — ate it up. I don’t think there was anyone there who needed convincing, but if there was, they were duly convinced.

I had been looking forward to seeing The Gates of Slumber since picking up their newest installment, The Wretch, at Roadburn and reveling in its doomly snail’s pacing. When last I saw them, it was in the small room under Webster Hall, and they were good then, but there’s no denying guitarist/vocalist Karl Simon is completely in his element rocking out mournful total-doom songs about drinking and losing at life. They were killer. Hard not to hoist a claw or two to such rampant musical misery.

The material from The Wretch was some of the strongest they played — that’s not to discount the impact of “The Ice Worm’s Lair” — and new drummer “Cool Clyde” Paradis has a clearly natural ability to play slow and still make it sound heavy. Between him and bassist Jason McCash, Simon had formidable backup, although maybe that’s underplaying their roles in the band a bit, since each third of the trio brings so much to the whole. Either way, their songs managed to sound empty and minimalist and still without actually being boring or inaccessible, and they showed that their latest lineup is their strongest yet.

And then, after three already killer sets, there came Orange Goblin. The foursome had been wandering through the crowd for most of the night, back and forth between backstage and the bar, the can, etc., and they came out introduced by AC/DC‘s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).” Santos was long since packed out, and it was more of a party (as the name of the venue would suggest) than a show by the time they were a few songs in. The songs from Orange Goblin‘s last album, 2007′s Healing Through Fire, went over especially well — “They Come Back” and “Harvest of Skulls” being high points — but even through classics like “Cozmo Bozo” and “Aquatic Fanatic,” frontman Ben Ward had the crowd eating from his hand.

There was a mosh pit, if a friendly, old-school-metal, “let’s all bump into each other and not throw punches,” one, and a single diver took the stage no less than four times, singing along with Ward and even once trying to grab the vocalist’s beer, which was where the line seemed to be drawn. As it’s become my motto for existence, “Some You Win, Some You Lose” was a special boon, guitarist Joe Hoare putting the song’s awesome main riff to good use for the crowd singing along to Ward. There was a three-song encore of “Time Traveling Blues,” “Quincy the Pigboy” and “Scorpionica,” all of which sent the audience apeshit, though maybe a little less so for the former, which is a slower cut. Nonetheless, Orange Goblin were amazing the whole way through.

It had me thinking back to the last time they were in town, in 2006 with Scissorfight at the now-showless Continental, and how even though they’ve only been back to the US once since then (for the Planet Caravan fest in North Carolina in 2009), their reputation has grown enormously. I recall the Continental being crowded, but nothing like this. Santos is a much bigger room, and it was full, so there’s no doubt the last couple years have brought well-spread word on their unique and boozy brand of mayhem. All the more exciting, then, to think what they’ll be able to accomplish with their next album. Ben Ward called the NYC show a “life-changing moment,” and maybe it was.

Orange Goblin was nonetheless headed south to Maryland Deathfest and then out for more shows with Naam and The Gates of Slumber, so once it was over, it was over. Someone suckerpunched Tommy Southard from Solace outside the venue, perhaps out of jealousy of Solace‘s last album, A.D. (which was my pick of the year in 2010), but I didn’t stick around to watch the drama unfold if there was any. With a long-enough drive back to Jersey, some late-night empanadas and subsequently my humble river valley ahead, I split out for the car, rife with the kind of energy only a really, really good night can provide.

I know this was a long one, but if you’re still reading, thanks for that. More pics after the jump.

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I’ve been fortunate enough to interview Orange Goblin three times. The first was a cross-continental phoner with frontman Ben Ward about the band’s 2007 album, Healing Through Fire, that never ran in the magazine it was supposed to. The second was a backstage in-person chat with all four members of the band, who had flown over from their native London to play the Planet Caravan festival in North Carolina in 2009, and the audio recording from that was so atrocious that I couldn’t even transcribe it (someone was playing on stage on the other side of the wall — I kind of saw it coming).

So, needless to say, when the chance popped up to once again speak to Ward about Orange Goblin‘s first American tour in half a decade and the recent release of a five-disc CD box set comprising all of their catalogue but the aforementioned 2007 offering, my only hope was that I came out of it with something usable. Third time, as they say, is the charm.

Orange Goblin in about a week’s time are set to begin that run of US dates, with Indianapolis trad doomers The Gates of Slumber and Brooklyn psychedelic outfit Naam in tow. It might seem like odd timing for a band to tour four years after their last album came out, but as Ward — who’s joined in Orange Goblin by guitarist Joe Hoare, bassist Martyn Millard and drummer Chris Turner — explains in the interview, there was a little while there where they weren’t sure they were going to do anything at all, let alone travel across an ocean for a tour. Given that and the semi-ironic collapse of Sanctuary Records, I’m not about to argue.

Ward, who stands a full 18 meters in height (perhaps I exaggerate), is one of the most imposing frontmen in doom while on stage, but over the phone, he was both cordial and accommodating in our discussion of Orange Goblin‘s new beginnings, their recording plans for their long-awaited next album, coming back to the States, when Rise Above Records might do a round of vinyl reissues, life’s simple pleasures and much more. We talked about the band’s love of Pabst Blue Ribbon and their upcoming performance at Maryland Deathfest, where they’ll be joining the likes of Cathedral, Neurosis, Coroner and Voivod on one of 2011′s most eclectic bills.

Complete Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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