Well they’ve been in the large live review for this issue [have they? oops! - Ed], and what do you know, the lucky buggers have also weaseled their way into the Big Review. It’s amazing what a bunch of pissed Londoners can achieve.

Music For Nations

Orange Goblin
The Big Black

To tell you the truth, I figured Orange Goblin were probably past their peak. The last few gigs I had seen by the band were unfocussed and it seemed like the guys were stuck in a rut. However, I’m pleased to say that The Big Black is better than I expected. The album sees Ben Ward and his cohorts pillaging more musical tombs than ever before, stretching the standard Goblin sound in a few new and surprising directions. Having said that, the band should be slapped on the wrist for some overtly obvious plagiarism that undermines the originality of their previous two releases. Cozmo Bozo is Writhe by Kyuss, Turbo Effalunt is Fireball by Deep Purple and The Big Black is a shortened version of Sleep’s Jerusalem. Sure they’ve added some Goblinesque quirks to them, but nevertheless these tracks do cut it a bit close for comfort.

The album itself does seem a little bit rushed, with perhaps a number of tracks going a little too close to filler territory. Despite this, the band have still produced an album which may prove to be a bridge to a new musical field for them, and it could be that their next album is the watershed release that they’ve been waiting for. Stop-gap seems a little cruel but that ’s what The Big Black sounds like to these ears.

Graeme's Rating: **********

Well, quite an interesting multi-review this issue - the third album from English stoners Orange Goblin. An album many of us here in Attitude Towers have been looking forward to. Having heard the new songs live at a number of gigs recently, and not been that impressed (though this was largely due to the band being completely fucked, I think), I was interested to see how the studio versions held up.

They make no qualms about being influenced by 70s rock, and it's just as bloody well, as they've ripped off Deep Purple's Fireball almost exactly on track 6 (Turbo Effalunt (Elephant)). Add to that track 4 (Cozmo Bozo) being a complete and obvious Kyuss rip-off, even down to the name of the damn song, and the title track seemingly a tribute (is that the right term? Well, I think that's the nice term, anyway!) to Sleep's Jerusalem, and you've got three rip-offs that immediately strike the listener.

The album itself is a whole lot better than I expected (having heard horrendous renditions of some of these songs recently) - it's a good mix of seventies influenced fuzzed-up rockin' tunes. Just what you'd come to expect from Orange Goblin, really - lots of fuzz, lots of groove, and lots of fun. What more could you want? My concerns of them becoming stale on this album were for the most part unfounded. Not a great change from last album, mind, but then again, there was no great need for any change. I'm slightly disappointed they didn't experiment more with their sound and explore the trippy aspect of this kind of music (started on the likes of Star Shaped Cloud off their debut album) more here, but that's just me nitpicking, I guess. these tunes will kick your ass.

Orange Goblin have carved out a niche for their sound over the past few years, and do little to deviate from that on this release, which is bad in some ways, good in others. The strength of these songs though makes this album worthy of your ears' attention.

Scott's Verdict: Groooooooooooovy, man.

What more can I say than has been mentioned above? Not that much actually. The Big Black is a good album by a great band, though it does stray rather far into 'homage' territory at times. It is so blatantly obvious that's its hard to believe they thought they could get away with it (or did they?)

Despite that fact, I'd have to say that the first half of the album is stonkin' stuff! It definitely tails off after that to leave what is all in all an above mediocre CD. Respect to the guys, but I think they could have done better. They sound complacent. I was very curious to hear The Big Black to see what difference it made not using Dave Chang on the production side. I have to say that from first listen to now I still think the sound is too rough. It doesn't have the clarity, tripiness, or variety that Chang gave them.

If they don't manage to get a grip on their live performances they could well start losing their audience. They used to kick arse live, but lately they seem to have been a bit too fucked to cut it.

Kevin's Verdict: Reasonable album + reasonable live show = not good enough.

Thank you Ed, some music almost close to what I like. Although I do not actually have any of the other albums by Orange Goblin, I have been to see them a couple of times and have enjoyed the immensely. Anyway back to the review. This album got off to a flying start with the first three tracks which were fairly fast and catchy and ran together to create a perfect start. With such a start how were they going to keep it flowing with fourth song entitled Combo Bozo (I think, although Ed's marking for the song titles leaves a lot to be desired) [yeah right, you just can't read you Cozmo Bozo - Ed], which starts with an almost ballad like guitar riff before developing into a mid-paced rock track. This made a pleasant change from the first three tracks, however after this tremendous start I found the rest of the album to be a bit of a let down. Anyway I am now encouraged to go and find the rest of the Orange Goblin back catalog to find out what I have been missing out on. [Malky]