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Some have said that this is a return to form for Orange Goblin, but that is bollocks because this great English underground metal behemoth has never been off form.

To be fair, OG are a live band rather than an albums band, and while all their albums are good – as is this one – they are like The Ramones or The Cramps in that one album will do you pretty much as well as any other.

This is less anglo doom and more classic English hard rock – albeit with all the needles in the red and the reverb up full. No bummers, a few standout new classics like Acid Trial, The Filthy And The Few and Death Of Aquarius.

The closing title track is a dark, almost proggy epic that sounds like it was ripped from the soundtrack of some lost 70s Hammer biker vampire flick.

Allan McLachlan spent the late 70s studying politics at Strathclyde University and cut his teeth as a journalist in the west of Scotland on arts and culture magazines. He moved to London in the late 80s and started his life-long love affair with the metropolitan district as Music Editor on City Limits magazine. Following a brief period as News Editor on Sounds, he went freelance and then scored the high-profile gig of News Editor at NME. Quickly making his mark, he adopted the nom de plume Tommy Udo. He moved onto the NME's website, then Xfm online before his eventual longer-term tenure on Metal Hammer and associated magazines. He wrote biographies of Nine Inch Nails and Charles Manson. A devotee of Asian cinema, Tommy was an expert on 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano and co-wrote an English language biography on the Japanese actor and director. He died in 2019.

Orange Goblin: A Eulogy For The Damned

Greasy spoon biker metal from scary hell.