Nothing lifts the spirits in these grey days like a 10-foot tall beardy bloke bellowing, “We’re Orange fucking Goblin baby!” Particularly when that’s followed by a blistering set of quality heavy metal.
Yes, they were told they could never return after Bloodstock 2001 (bad behaviour, trashed dressing room, naughty boys…), but as this live CD/DVD package affirms – led by 2012’s Bloodstock set, plus extras including Hellfest 2012 footage and behind-the-scenes chitchat – you’d be mad to turn them away now.
Maybe it’s the freak-out purple lights, maybe it’s the nostalgic one-guitar riffery, but you soon realise quite how much Orange Goblin owe to the psychedelic doom-metal efforts of early Black Sabbath, Pentagram and co. The likes of Fog, from 2012’s fantastic A Eulogy For The Damned, ooze pseudo-occult musings on ‘ceremonial sin’ and ‘blood running in’ – melodic, dirty and dark all at once.
From the awesome stoner-tinged Red Tide Rising, through blast-beating, crunching power in They Come Back, A Eulogy For The Fans will invoke nostalgic smugness in those who were there, and seething envy in those who weren’t.
