Posted in Whathaveyou on April 22nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Some say the world will end in fire, I say Orange Goblin‘s final holiday-special show might just do the trick. Somewhat inevitably, London’s doom rock overlords will conclude their 30-year run with a UK stint in December, culminating Dec. 17 at 02 Kentish Town Forum, accompanied by Grand Magus and Urne. I have to wonder if Solace will fly over for that last show.
Either way, Orange Goblin‘s career is indeed a thing to celebrate, and if they end up doing festivals in five years or other projects or nothing at all forever, they’ve never done anything but make their fans proud to be fans, and they’ve kicked more ass than entire scenes. Going out on their own terms, whether it’s forever or not, is one more example.
Got this from social media:
**ORANGE GOBLIN ANNOUNCE ‘END OF TRANSMISSION – THE FINAL TOUR’ FOR UK & IRELAND IN DECEMBER 2025!**
Here it is folks, these will be the LAST EVER shows for Orange Goblin and we will be bringing our good friends Grand Magus and URNE along for one final trip around the country!
‘We are delighted to finally announce that Orange Goblin will do one last tour of the UK and Ireland in December 2025 before we call it a day! It’s going to be bittersweet performing at these last 7 shows, seven of the biggest shows we will have ever played! Although there will be sadness at this being the end, we are very happy to be able to bring along two amazing bands that we took out on their first ever tours, old and new. From Sweden, we have the almighty power of GRAND MAGUS, a band that we toured Europe with way back in 2002, and then again in 2004. We have always remained friends and know what an amazing live act they are, everytime they take to the stage.
Opening up each night will be one of the best UK bands of the past 10 years, URNE, who we took on their first UK tour back in 2021. We were blown away with their modern take on metal and the soundscapes they create, mixing subtlety and aggression! These promise to be very special shows and will be your very last chance to come and drink, headbang and rasie some hell with Orange ‘Fuckin’ Goblin Baby!’ We will be playing songs from throughout our 30 year career, so whether you’re an old die-hard or a new fan, there should be something for everyone.
“We’ve been announcing final shows all over the world this year, and have been reading the fans’ comments about doing one last trek around the UK and Ireland, so we didn’t want to disappoint them and feel that it will be fitting to end our journey in our hometown of London! One last Orange Goblin Christmas knees-up anyone? You know it makes sense!” – Ben Ward, Orange Goblin 2025
10.12: The Garage, Glasgow, UK 11.12: Button Factory, Dublin, IRE 12.12: KK’s Steelmill, Wolverhampton, UK 13.12: Academy 2, Manchester, UK 14.12: SWX, Bristol, UK 16.12: The 1865, Southampton, UK 17.12: o2 Forum Kentish Town, London, UK
Orange Goblin is: Ben Ward – Vocals Joe Hoare – Guitar Harry Armstrong – Bass / Backing vocals Christopher Turner – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 25th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With Slomosa‘s global takeover of the heavy rock underground well underway, there’s probably nobody better to have sitting at the top of the poster for the inaugural edition of the Tundra and Lightning Festival, set for this Oct. 3-4 in the band’s hometown of Bergen, Norway. They’re hardly alone, as the lineup revealed today shows they’ll be joined by Orange Goblin for what will be their last Norwegian show as they wrap their 30-year career arc, as well as The Good the Bad and the Zugly, Spidergawd, Audrey Horne, Thulsa Doom (oldschool, good pick), and a slew of upstarts further down the bill.
It’s a first-year, feel-it-out kind of two-dayer, but they’ve got the aesthetic and concept on lock, as well as the lineup, and for something that’s just months away from happening for the first time, that’s not nothing. With Begen as an epicenter for a rising generation of heavy rockers throughout Norway and Scandinavia more broadly, and festivals happening everywhere all the time throughout Europe, in Fall or otherwise, this just makes a lot of sense to me. Will be cool to see how it builds over the next few years as well.
Bergen Live and USF Verftet are joining forces to present a brand new rock festival in Bergen on the first weekend of October 2025. Tundra and Lightning is the festival that Bergen needs. The festival will make full use of the entire USF venue and will grow each year in line with the development of the USF Cultural Quarter.
Lineup: ⚡Slomosa ⚡The Good The Bad And The Zugly ⚡Orange Goblin (UK) ⚡ Audrey Horne ⚡ Thulsa Doom ⚡ Spidergawd ⚡ Heavy Lungs (UK) ⚡ Phantom Fire ⚡ Sklitakling ⚡ Last Hounds (UK) ⚡ The Clumps ⚡ Morax ⚡ Hästspark (SE) ⚡ Of All Things
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 22nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If this is really it for Orange Goblin — and my hope is that 2025 is their retirement run like Ozzy Osbourne did ‘No More Tours’ that time in the early ’90s — then there are few in metal of any genre who could stand up to their run of 30 years, 10 albums (and none suck), and a path of devastation that has flattened the world over. It’s sad to think that I might already have seen the band for the last time I will — though they were great, Freak Valley ’23 (review here), so no complaints — but they don’t owe anybody anything, and they leave open the possibility of coming back for more. Maybe five years from now everybody’s really happy Orange Goblin announce a tour? You can’t blame them for wanting to take some time. It’s been 30 years.
Congratulations on the anniversary and (not that they need me to say it but) job well done to Orange Goblin. If you caught their 10th and maybe final album, Science, Not Fiction (review here), last year, you know they’re going out on top of their game, should in fact they be ‘going out’ in a permanent way at all, the thought of which gives me what apparently in first-grade social-emotional learning they call “big feelings.”
Orange Goblin traditionally end the year with a holiday run, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve saved a blowout for this December, last time and all. I’ll keep an eye, but their statement from socials does hint at more “in the pipeline.” To wit:
**30 YEARS OF ORANGE GOBLIN….AND THAT’S ALL FOLKS!**
As Orange Goblin enters its 30th year of existence, we have made the collective decision that 2025 will be our last. Maybe not forever and who knows what could be possible further down the line. It’s been a wild 30 years and we have had some incredible experiences and are left with magical memories. For that we are all truly grateful. We started the band with no real preconception of what it eventually became, we started as bored teenagers with a mutual love of Heavy Metal, Classic Rock and Punk Rock. We feel very fortunate that we have been able to travel all over the world, numerous times, and have made a network of friends all around the globe. We are proud of everything we have accomplished together, we’ve always maintained a DIY ethic and done things our own way and on our terms. We have never compromised to fit into any specific scene and we feel we leave a very strong legacy of 10 studio albums, each one a milestone that marks exactly where we were at each point of our journey. Of this, we are fiercely proud. It’s not been an easy decision for any of us, we have all given 30 years of our lives to this incredible band, but we feel that now is the right time for us to focus our attention on our families and other interests outside the band. We will of course be honouring all the shows and festivals we currently have planned for 2025, as well as a few other things that we have in the pipeline, but these could be your last chance to catch Orange Goblin live!
We would like to express our gratitude to every single person that has made this possible for us, there are far too many to name personally, but especially to our wives and children that have supported us no matter what, our former band mates, Martyn and Pete, the current and former road crew that have kept the show on the road for so long, despite us never making things easy for them. But last and by no means least, we thank you, the Orange Goblin fans that have been the bedrock of everything for us. Nothing we have done would’ve been possible without the fans that have bought the albums, the merchandise, the show tickets and ALWAYS showed us and made us feel just how appreciated we are. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts……….
– Ben, Joe, Chris & Harry Orange Fuckin’ Goblin Baby! End of transmission. 1995-2025.
Orange Goblin – Final Shows 2025 07.03 Thessaloniki GR 08.03 Athens GR 09.03 Sofia BG 24.05 Baltimore US 13.06 Into the Grave, NL 19.06 Hellfest, FR 31.07 Rockstadt Extreme, RO 02.08 Wacken, DE 03.08 Sylak Open Air, FR 06.08 Brutal Assault, FR 08.08 Bloodstock, UK 15.08 Frantic Fest, IT 05.09 Summer Dying Loud, PL
Orange Goblin is: Ben Ward – Vocals Joe Hoare – Guitar Harry Armstrong – Bass / Backing vocals Christopher Turner – Drums
Posted in Features on December 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]
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Hi, and welcome to The Obelisk’s year in review for 2024. This is a thing that’s kind of developed over the 15-plus years the site’s been in operation, and it’s something that people sometimes tell me has been a help when it comes to finding new music. I know for myself as well, I’ve referred back to these lists a lot in subsequent years, to see where bands were and where my head was, and so on. Are best-of lists meaningful, at all, in any way? Probably to the person making them, and that’s me, so I’ll proceed.
I thought the format last year worked pretty well, so I’ve hijacked it for use here. Not something I expect anyone to notice, but I did want to mention it on the off-chance. I don’t have a best live album of the year, but there are a few worth talking about, surely.
It’s been a busy, fast year. The barrage of music is overwhelming — and as problems go, that’s among the best ones to have — but I do think we’re seeing some tapering off. Generational turnover is, in fact, a constant, but the 2020s are taking shape now with bands who started making their name around the mid-2010s shifting into headliner status, new bands coming up beneath, more diverse in sound and construction, and with new ideas. This isn’t universal, but it is the ideal vision of the thing. Circle of life and such.
But it’s a lot. Including the 50-releases-strong Quarterly Review last week, I’m well north of having reviewed 400 total different mostly-full-lengths since January. That’s insane. The math is obvious, but I’ll point out anyhow that you could buy an album for every day of the year and have enough for an extra month-plus afterward. An astonishing amount of music, and I’m by no means reviewing everything.
Which brings me to the inevitable last point. I haven’t reviewed everything. If you’re here wondering where Opeth and Blood Incantation are landing on my list, they aren’t. Nothing against either of them, I just haven’t dug into the records since I knew I wouldn’t be reviewing them. The regular standard of doing as much as I can, when I can, about as much as I can, applies.
Please if you disagree with some pick below or other — and if you do, that’s healthy — I kindly ask you to keep things civil in the comments. I’m not here to call people out on enjoying things I don’t — fascism aside — and I know it makes me sad when I break my ass for days to put this together and the first comment is, “NO [WHOEVER]. LIST SUCKS. NEVER READING THIS FILTH AGAIN,” etc. Before you comment, please take a second to read what you put back to yourself for kindness. That’s good for spelling too, not that I’d know.
That’s all the stalling I can do. Time to dive in. Happy holidays.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2024
**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.
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60-31
60. Psychlona, Warped Vision
59. Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, The Mind Like Fire Unbound
58. Massive Hassle, Unreal Damage
57. Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Apotheosis
56. Space Shepherds, Cycler
55. Abrams, Blue City
54. Castle Rat, Into the Realm
53. Heath, Isaak’s Marble
52. Weite, Oase
51. Cosmic Fall, Back Where the Fire Flows
50. Troy the Band, Cataclysm
49. Sunnata, Chasing Shadows
48. Skraeckoedlan, Vermillion Sky
47. Acid Mammoth, Supersonic Megafauna Collision
46. Deer Creek, The Hiraeth Pit
45. Big Scenic Nowhere, The Waydown
44. Grin, Hush
43. The Swell Fellas, Residuum Unknown
42. The Gates of Slumber, The Gates of Slumber
41. Coltaine, Forgotten Ways
40. Mountain of Misery, The Land
39. Mammoth Volume, Raised Up by Witches
38. Delving, All Paths Diverge
37. High on Fire, Cometh the Storm
36. Thou, Umbilical
35. The Giraffes, Cigarette
34. Fu Manchu, The Return of Tomorrow
33. Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors
32. Daevar, Amber Eyes
31. Causa Sui, From the Source
Notes:
Just in case you’re the type of person who’d say, “Oh how could you have a top 60? after a certain number it’s all the same,” I’ll admit that’s true, but 60 is apparently nowhere near the ‘certain number’ in question for me this year. I agonized over this part of the list. More than the top 30, and more than picking a best short release, best debut, or anything else. I wanted basically a second top 30, and I feel like if I saw this as that, as 30-1, I’d congratulate whoever submitted it on their taste. But maybe that’s just me agreeing with myself.
I like the mix of up and comers and established acts here. Sunnata and Skraeckoedlan, The Giraffes, of course High on Fire, Deer Creek and so on, mixing with up and comers like Full Earth, Daevar, Acid Mammoth, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Heath, Troy the Band and Weite. I feel somewhat compelled to justify my High on Fire placement, especially looking at the results so far of the year-end poll. They’re amazing, they’re devastating, they’re a singular live act, but I just didn’t listen to the record that much. There. A big part of me feels like it should be top 10 just by virtue of who the band are, but if I did that for everybody who deserved it, I wouldn’t have room for anything new. All I can do is be honest to my own listening habits and opinions. I know High on Fire are really, really good. I know this album is really, really good. That’s why it’s on this list. Should it be higher? Probably. I’m doing my best.
Thank you for your kind attention in this matter. Also, listen to The Giraffes.
You won’t hear me say a downer word about An Earlier Time‘s quieter stretches, but it’s the sweeping moments like “Limitless” that find Boston’s Sundrifter making the most resonant impression. Their third full-length and the follow-up to 2018’s Visitations (review here), it was a strong declaration of who Sundrifter want to be as they continue to grow, and deserved more love than I saw that it got.
Oh, look out for Mr. Blogosphere. He’s out here taking a real risk putting Tranquonauts on the year-end list, like the combining of forces between Melbourne, Australia, heavy psych blues rockers Seedy Jeezus and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell wasn’t gonna work the second time around? Wow, Mitchell‘s and Lex Waterreus‘ guitars sure do sound awesome together. Oh — it’s a hot-take! Better get your react videos ready. The internet is terrible. This album offers escape from it.
At the risk of having to give back my Music-Journalism-Level membership to the Sycophant Society, I’ll dare to point out that Chat Pile are way, way hyped. That happens sometimes. It’s not like they’re out there being like, “Hey we’re the noise rock white dudes shifting paradigms for noise rock white dudes, best in a generation.” It’s people like me with all the hyperbole and comma splicing. I get that too. It’s a sound geared toward inciting a strong reaction, from the sneering sarcasm of the title down. By the way, am I the only one who looks at the title Cool World and thinks of the 1992 semi-animated film of the same name? I kind of hope so. See? Big feelings all around.
Rest assured, I don’t, but if I had any friends, I’d be like, “Hey, you should check out this band Gnome from Belgium. They’ve got fun riffs and they beat you over the head with them until you remember them by heart.” And these ‘friends’ would be all, “Wow man, that sounds definitely like something I would ever want to introduce to the scope of my life experiences! Thank you! I’m so glad to be your friend and the world is definitely a better place with you in it.” And then everybody’s day is better, all because of sharing and the shenanigans-laced riff metal proffered by these three behatted miscreants from Antwerpen.
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26. Brant Bjork Trio, Once Upon a Time in the Desert
Brant Bjork‘s solo band begat Stöner, and Stöner begat Brant Bjork Trio as Bjork, drummer Ryan Güt and bassist Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, Yawning Man, etc.). I’ll cop to being a nerd for Brant Bjork‘s output generally — it’s a kind of cool so definitively Californian, my NJ-ass self can’t help but admire it — but the chemistry in Once Upon a Time in the Desert is on point to an undeniable degree, and the songs are a reminder of how the back catalog got so strong in the first place. What else could you want?
Five albums in, a post-arrival Sergeant Thunderhoof stand ready. They know who they are, what they want their songs to do, why and how to make it happen. The Ghost of Badon Hill gives a conceptual focus to unite material intentionally sprawling, and lets listeners immerse in a narrative all the more easily for the quality of its songcraft. Self-recorded, it is masterful in performance and assured of its execution, pored over but not overworked; the happy accidents might have been left in on purpose, but they still sound like accidents. And Sergeant Thunderhoof still sound like a band driving themselves toward the unknown.
Doom metal is lucky to have Early Moods laying out a template for the next generation to hopefully follow. The Los Angeles five-piece’s second full-length, A Sinner’s Past, refined the lurch of their 2022 self-titled (review here), and the combination of hard touring and progressive craft continues to bode well as they look toward their next offering. They’ve put in their work, however swift their ascent to this point might feel, and they’re about one great record away from standing among the best doom of the 21st century. You could easily argue they’re already there. Every reason is accounted for on A Sinner’s Past.
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23. Morpholith, Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics
Iceland’s Morpholith enter the conversation with Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics, which has cosmic-doom breadth and bong-metal crush to spare in the first four minutes of “Psychophere” alone, never mind anything that surrounds. The band’s debut is a bombastic plodder, beating out the march to a futuristic — and cold — vision of the riff-filled land that may or may not be Reykjavik in the wintertime while simultaneously being both very much of weed and not outwardly about it, seeming to have much more than addled, Mid Atlantic Ridge-heavy riff worship because — look out! — they do. If cosmic doom is ever going to be more than a loose thread connecting YOB and Ufomammut, bands like Morpholith need to keep pushing it forward like this. “Dismalium.” I dare you.
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22. Lamp of the Universe Meets Dr. Space, Enters Your Somas
Lamp of the Universe is multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and vocalist Craig Williamson, based in New Zealand. Dr. Space is synthesist, keyboardist, producer, bootlegger and bandleader Scott Heller. The ‘meeting’ of these two expanded minds takes place over two extended tracks, one vinyl side per, of lush psychedelic and multi-tiered drones, absolutely perfect for the zone-out hypnosis you’ve been trying to put yourself in all day but for that pesky consciousness. I wish I could come up with some kind of ritual awesome enough for the keyboard textures in “Enters Your Somas” or the propulsive space rock thuddenchug of “Infiltrates Your Mind,” but some sounds are just too cool for the planet. Come see how the freaks get down.
I spent some significant time with Dool‘s The Shape of Fluidity this Spring, before and after seeing them at Roadburn (review here), which was another highlight of the year. The album’s triumph, in songwriting, in transcending genre bounds and in conveying its theme of breaking loose from the gender binary, gave my parent-of-a-trans-kid self a hopeful vision of a future beyond dark, hateful rhetoric or implied/real violence. It showed me a possible path to victory on what will be and already is a hard road. It was there when I needed it, which is a specific ideal of art providing care. I’ll never forget that.
Granted the Western soundscaping at the outset of the eponymous “Buzzard” lays it on thick, but it’s supposed to! We’re talking fire-and-brimstone earthbound Americana folk with a doomly rhythmic cast, given the self-aware title of Doom Folk by the solo artist Buzzard, aka Christopher Thomas Elliott, laying it on thick is the point. Elliott has a follow-up out soon already. Thinking of Doom Folk as the beginning of a creative progression makes its nuance and individualist drive even more exciting, but the rawness of this debut, the straightforwardness of its structures and the resulting memorability are part of the appeal for sure.
Seven bangers. Not a dud in the bunch. Two nine-minute songs and you still couldn’t say a moment of High Desert Queen‘s rightly anticipated sophomore LP is wasted. Not when you’re building up to the roll of “Head Honcho,” certainly. The Texas outfit built on the good-time largesse and party-but-not-a-party-so-cool-you-don’t-feel-welcome vibing of 2021’s Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) and set themselves vociferously to the task of being the change in heavy rock that they wanted to hear. Palm Reader‘s infectiousness is a strength, both in terms of a catchy piece like “Ancient Aliens” or “Time Waster,” and also in the overarching positive-framed mood and heart so clearly put into the material.
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18. Ufomammut, Hidden
Released by Supernatural Cat and Neurot Recordings. Reviewed May 21.
Now a quarter-century on from their start, Italian trio Ufomammut have yet to put out a record that didn’t sound like a forward step from the one before it. And Hidden is their 10th album. The band are progenitors and refiners of a cosmic doom sound that is unto itself, and cuts like “Kismet” and “Leeched” manage to be both lumbering in their massive-tone grooves and sprawling with a synthy ambience that, though certainly influential, is immediately recognizable as Ufomammut. Hidden is part of a creative trajectory, to be sure, and the arc is ongoing, but there’s more than enough substance here to leave a crater behind in the listener’s brain.
In its arrangement as five separate dreams taking place over its component tracks, the only thing Pentasomnia doesn’t take into account is that another Iota LP was a dream all on its own even before music actually happened. A full 16 years after shaking the galaxy’s core with their 2008 debut, Tales (discussed here, and here), the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (Dwellers, Hibernaut), drummer/producer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, ex-SubRosa, etc.) and bassist Oz Yasri (ex-Bird Eater) making a comeback — let alone it actually being good — was nigh on unthinkable. Then you heard “The Intruder” and reality shifted just a bit. Pretty sweet.
Few albums in 2024 were as entrancing as Langt, Langt Vekk, the hopefully-not-a-one-off collaboration between Norwegian progressive heavy instrumentalists Kanaan and neofolk contemporaries Ævestaden. Both adventurous outfits in their own right, the combination of elements, from live drums and synth to traditional plucked strings and Norwegian-language vocal choruses, works stunningly well. That little bit of fuzz in “Habbor og Signe,” or the cymbal wash behind “Dalebu Jonsson” — the songs are full of these little nuances or flourishes waiting to be found, but even with the most superficial of listens, the achievement resounds, whether one approaches from a viewpoint of heavy rock, prog, folk or psychedelia.
You know, I’ve kind of dug DVNE records all along, and I can’t really call Voidkind a surprise after 2021’s Etemen Ænka (review here), but these songs — “Eleonora,” “Sarmatae,” “Abode of the Perfect Soul,” among others — hit me much harder than I had expected, and the more I listened to try to twist my head around “Reliquary,” the more the album as a whole revealed of its character and detail. I review a lot of stuff, and I hear more than I review, so I don’t always get pulled back by every record, but Voidkind kept calling for return visits.
Look. If you’re reading this, I know I don’t have to tell you about Orange Goblin. Even if you don’t already have a soft spot for the long-running UK doom rockers, they’re perfectly happy to pummel one into you with Science, Not Fiction, their first album since 2018 and a realignment toward a harder-edged heavy rock sound, where the last, say, two records had leaned more metal. I heard some griping about the production not helping, but I heard absolutely nothing to complain about here. The band are on fire and the recording shows it, the songs aren’t necessarily any great progressive leap but for sure they’re Orange Goblin songs, and for a band who owes nobody proof of anything, they set a high standard and deliver accordingly, like god damned professionals should.
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13. Spaceslug, Out of Water
Released by Electric Witch Mountain Recordings. Reviewed May 14.
What I didn’t get about Spaceslug until I finally saw them live at Desertfest New York (review here) was just how metal the impact of their songs can get. It’s not necessarily that they’ve grown more aggressive, unless you want to incorporate harsh vocals or shouting — “Tears of Antimatter” also has gently-delivered barely-there spoken word, so it depends on the story you want to tell — but the blend of melancholic doom, heavy psychedelia and melodic fluidity that has become Spaceslug‘s stylistic wheelhouse is not to be missed. Out of Water finds them at their broadest and least concerned with genre, and brings into relief how special a band they’ve become. Also it rocks.
No secret how Craneium are doing it on Point of No Return; it’s right there in the songs. All of them. “One Thousand Sighs,” “The Sun,” “A Distant Shore,” “…Of Laughter and Cries,” “Things Have Changed” and “Search Eternal.” Texture and hooks, heft and scope and melody and crash and shove, classy progressive execution and swaggering conjurations. Most of all, songs that stay with you. Chances are, if you heard this record and gave it its due attention at some point in your time with it, you didn’t have to do much more than read the titles to have the tracks playing in your head. That’s not a coincidence. It’s craft. It’s a willful outreach on the part of the band and material. It’s what makes you want to sing along. And why would you not?
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11. Guhts, Regeneration
Released by Seeing Red Records and New Heavy Sounds. Reviewed Feb. 5.
More on it below, but for the moment, suffice it to say that the bludgeoning and/or scathe of Regeneration at its most intense and the depths its mix seemed to find, the debut full-length from New York post-metallers Guhts dared visceral emotionality in a way few records so heavy could or would hope to. The willing-to-break-her-voice-if-necessary performance of Amber Gardner and the weighted undulations surrounding from guitarist Scott Prater, bassist Daniel Martinez and drummer Brian Clemens, the open sway, unfettered crush, and quiet spaces offsetting all that bombast result in both a chaotic feel and an applicable world. Therefore it must be modern. Fine. It sounds like the future.
As to how Philadelphia’s Heavy Temple managed to fit so much swagger onto a single platter, you’d have to ask them, but their second album, Garden of Heathens, landed hard in tone and attitude alike. Songs like “Extreme Indifference to Life,” “House of Warship” and the galloping payoff of “Jesus Wept” ahead of the thrashy finale “Psychomanteum” affirmed what was set out in 2021’s Lupi Amoris (review here) and their earlier short releases while marking out and conquering decisively new territory in their sound. I know it was recorded two years ago or something like that, but it’s still a band beginning to realize their potential in craft and performance, and if a third LP happens sooner than later, so much the better.
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9. 1000mods, Cheat Death
Released by Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug and Ripple Music. Reviewed Nov. 11.
Whether one embraces Cheat Death because the songs kick ass or because 1000mods are so vivid and uncompromising in pushing themselves forward from release to release, I don’t think you’re wrong. The forerunners of their generation in Greek heavy rock remain among the finest Europe’s heavy underground have to offer, and the atmosphere they’re able to conjure alongside the straight-ahead Matt Bayles-produced punk-metal hooks of these songs is emblematic of why. Without ever giving up their foundation in heavy rock, 1000mods have consistently refined their processes and grown as songwriters. The joke of Cheat Death is how alive the material feels.
Faced with the considerable task of following up the to-date album of their career, Elektrik Ram (review here), just one year later, South African heavy rockers Ruff Majik did not flinch. Instead, Moth Eater takes the outright charge and sharpness-minded efficiency of its predecessor in a stated trilogy that began with 2020’s The Devil’s Cattle (review here) and sets it as the foundation for a confident, creative growth and sustainable expansion of sound. They’re a little more willing to dwell in parts, and they’re well aware of how catchy they can be, but also, they know the power of momentum and they’re fully in control of the narratives they’re telling. As Moth Eater readily demonstrates, it’s hard to know which of that it is that makes them most dangerous.
It’s hard to overstate the accomplishment of Nell’ Ora Blu, and I’m well aware that the critical sphere is full of plenty who’ve spent the better part of 2024 trying. Reasonable. The completeness of the world Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats built in the work based around the concept of soundtracking a giallo film that didn’t exist was singularly evocative. With original dialogue recorded (in Italian) specifically for ‘movie’ ambience, Uncle Acid took what had always been an influence on the band’s sound within genre-cinema and its methods of storytelling, and flipped the process on its head by creating its own story. Their influence is already well spread throughout the heavy underground, for sure, but in bringing a vision to life, this might be the album Uncle Acid have been working toward all along.
A forward-thinking masterwork from even before “Deadname” sneaks a layer of acoustic guitar under the mountain of distortion in the verse lines and “Arrival” and “Transitions” give evocative chronicle to the album’s trans-experiential theme — it is the band’s first since guitarist/vocalist Simona Ohlsson transitioned, and admirable for both its projected triumph and vulnerability around that — the fifth full-length from Vokonis continues the progressive path they have walked for the last decade-plus. A lineup change has brought some shift in dynamic, but a new strength of voice behind the material that makes “Phantom Carriage,” “Chrysalis,” and, suitably enough, “Arrival,” feel like a declarative pinnacle, and having something to say makes the raw impact of its heaviest moments all the more powerful.
There’s little funnier to me about heavy rock as it exists in 2024 than the idea that Greenleaf would be a band people take for granted. “Oh, Tommi Holappa and Company putting out another collection of classic-heavy and blues-rocking bangers? Business as usual, I guess.” Until you listen to the album, maybe. Then you get the tumble of “Avalanche,” the hooks in “Breathe, Breathe Out,” and “A Wolf in My Mind,” the subdued-bluesy pair “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” to remind how you much this band has been able to grow since Arvid Hällagård made his first appearance with them a decade ago, the way they’re able to move through a jam and land in a groove as solid as “Oh Dandelion,” reminiscent of Clutch in its start-stop funk but defined by its own persona. Every Greenleaf record is a gift. If feeling that way means I’m not impartial, good. We understand each other.
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4. Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Big Dumb Riffs
Promises made, promises kept. Austin-based crunch purveyors Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol stripped any and all excess out of their approach on Big Dumb Riffs, resulting in a quick-feeling collection of memorable, heavy tracks that, whether fast like “1800EATSHIT” or slow like “In a Jar,” are united in the album’s central stated purpose. Already an established brand of heavy revelry, the three-piece didn’t change anything radically in aesthetic terms, but the songs found their target one after the other, front to back, and were clever and well composed, however willfully lunkheaded the central riffery might have been. They’re headed to Europe in Spring, and I’m already hearing rumors of a next record, so keep an eye out in 2025.
Slomosa‘s released-in-2020 self-titled debut (review here) was a salve to many in troubled times, representing a next-generation hope for underground heavy in energetically-delivered, classic-feeling songs. Tundra Rock, which gives a name to the band’s style seemingly in direct answer to anyone who might class them as ‘desert,’ confirms the Norwegian four-piece at the forefront of an up and coming cohort of younger acts beginning to find their expressive modus and step beyond their root influences. Tundra Rock finds Slomosa doing this while giving their dual-vocal live dynamic vibrant studio representation and growing their material in character and melody alike. Heavy rock and roll is Slomosa‘s for the taking.
A record that didn’t need to be loud to be heavy, Brume‘s Marten is without question my most-listened-to album of 2024. That needs no qualifying. I had high expectations going into it after seeing the San Francisco band at Desertfest New York 2022 (review here), and Marten surpassed every hope I might’ve been able to harness for it and then some. The collective voice of the band incorporating multiple viewpoints from bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Susie McMullan, guitarist/vocalist Jamie McCathie, drummer Jordan Perkins Lewis, and in her first appearance as a full-on member of the band, cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon, Amber Asylum, etc.), resulted in a fluid but deeply divergent collection, comprised of songs that went where they wanted to go — or didn’t, thank you very much — according to their own whims and purposes. It is a landmark for Brume and, if any number of subgenres are lucky, a blueprint from which others will hopefully learn.
I acknowledge breaking my own rules here — splits are always, until and including this year, categorized as short releases in these lists — but when it came to it, the thought of putting Elephant Tree and Lowrider‘s The Long Forever anywhere else, considering it as anything else, seemed ridiculous. Especially if you count writing the liner notes for it, I’ve gone on at length about the release as an intersection of crucial moments for the respective bands, with Lowrider following their first album in 20 years, Refractions (review here), and Elephant Tree answering the progressive statement of their own second LP, Habits (review here), both released in 2020. The storyline gets deeper as Elephant Tree also look to reestablish themselves following a near-fatal accident suffered by guitarist/vocalist Jack Townley, melding rawness of tone with lush vocal harmonies, and Lowrider drag fuzz-rock traditionalism kicking and screaming into a reality of being both fun and intelligent. There ultimately was nothing else to call The Long Forever than the album of the year. If that comes with an asterisk because it’s a split, it doesn’t lessen the effect of hearing it at all. So yeah, I’m breaking the rules of the game. I’m inconsistent. Unprofessional. Biased. I don’t know what to tell you except love makes you do crazy things. In these songs themselves — do I even need to talk about the collaboration — and in the drive behind them, that’s what most resonates here.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2024: Honorable Mention
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If the 60 above wasn’t enough, here are more leads to chase down, alphabetical but in kind of a hyper-specific, ass-backwards-seeming way:
Acid Rooster, Alber Jupiter, Altareth, Alunah, Astrometer, Bismarck, Black Capricorn, Blasting Rod, BleakHeart, Blue Heron, Bongripper, Boozewa, Caffeine, Carpet, Castle, Cleen, Clouds Taste Satanic, Codex Serafini, Cold in Berlin, Cortez, The Cosmic Dead, Crypt Sermon, Daily Thompson, Deadpeach, Deaf Wolf, Demon Head, Destroyer of Light, Dopethrone, Duel, Earth Ship, Elephant Tree, Emu, Familiars, Bill Fisher, 40 Watt Sun, Ghost Frog, Goat Major, Guenna, Heath, High Reeper, Hijss, Horseburner, Ian Blurton’s Future Now, Insect Ark, Inter Arma, Kelley Juett, Juke Cove, Kalgon, Kandodo, Kant, Kariti, Kungens Män (x2), Kurokuma, Leather Lung, Legions of Doom, Lord Buffalo, Magic Fig, Magick Brother & Mystic Sister, Magick Potion, Magmakammer, Mammoth Caravan, Massive Hassle, MC MYASNOI, Merlin, Methadone Skies, Monkey3, Morag Tong, The Mountain King, Mount Hush, MR.BISON, My Dying Bride, Myriad’s Veil, No Man’s Valley, Norna, The Obsessed, Oryx, Pallbearer, Patriarchs in Black, Pia Isa, Planet of Zeus, Red Mesa, Rezn, Rifflord, Sacri Monti, Sandveiss, Satan’s Satyrs, Saturnalia Temple, Scorched Oak, Sheepfucker & Kraut, Slift, Slower, Slow Green Thing, SoftSun, The Sonic Dawn, SONS OF ZÖKU, Spacedrifter, Spiral Grave, Spirit Mother, Stonebride, Sun Blood Stories, Sunface, Sun Moon Holy Cult, Swallow the Sun, The Swell Fellas, Swell O, Temple Fang, 10,000 Years, Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans, Thunderbird Divine, Tigers on Opium, Traum, 24/7 Diva Heaven, Valley of the Sun, Vlimmer, Void Commander, Weather Systems, The Whims of the Great Magnet, Whispering Void, White Hills, Per Wiberg, Esben Willems, Worshipper, WyndRider…
Notes:
With the eternal caveat that I’ll be adding to the honorable mentions for the next few days as people drop names they remembered and I forgot, I’ll say I can live with the list as it is now. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m happy with it, but I’ll live. I felt like there was just too much good stuff in the 60-30, stuff that deserved a better look, and god damn, look at the honorable mentions. You’re gonna tell me Rezn wasn’t top 30 material? Or Inter Arma, or 10,000 Years (who I still need to review), or Kandodo or Cortez, or Bongripper, Blue Heron, Merlin, Slower? Mount Hush, Vlimmer, Destroyer of Light — I could do this all day. That Carpet record. That MR.BISON record. Valley of the Sun. I see these names and want to punch myself. Then I see the names in the top 30 and I go, “Well…” and kind of have to hold off. I guess that means it turned out to be a pretty fantastic year.
I know for a fact I didn’t hear everything that came out, and I’m willing to bet that any number of people who see this will have their own opinions on the best albums of 2024 from top to bottom. I celebrate this difference and look forward to being exposed to new sounds because of it. Let comments fly, please. Once again, my only ask is that you keep it kind as relates to my own list(s) and any other picks someone might offer. If I’ve got facts wrong, something was a Dec. 2023 release instead of Jan. 2024, whatever, by all means, let me know. But we’re all friends here and being a jerk about it solves nothing.
And yes, I’ll admit to projecting some self-criticism in the Elephant Tree/Lowrider selection for album of the year. All I can tell you is I stand by that pick. It’s that because when I was putting together the list, it couldn’t have been anywhere else. I don’t love breaking my own arbitrary rules nearly as much as I love imposing those arbitrary rules in the first place, but sometimes apparently one is forced from one’s comfort zone to their own general betterment. Who knew?
Of course we’re not done yet.
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Debut Album of the Year 2024
Guhts, Regeneration
Other notable debuts (alphabetical):
Azutmaga, Offering
Buzzard, Doom Folk
Castle Rat, Into the Realm
Cleen, Excursion
Coltaine, Forgotten Ways
Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors
Goat Generator, Goat Generator
Goat Major, Ritual
Grave Speaker, Grave Speaker
Guenna, Peak of Jin’Arrah
Hashtronaut, No Return
Heath, Isaak’s Marble
Hijss, Stuck on Common Ground
Kalgon, Kalgon
Kant, Paranoia Pilgrimage
Kitsa, Dead by Dawn
Leather Lung, Graveside Grin
Legions of Doom, The Skull 3
Magic Fig, Magic Fig
Magick Potion, Magick Potion
Morpholith, Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics
Myriad’s Veil, Pendant
Neon Nightmare, Faded Dream
Plant, Cosmic Phytophthora
Rabid Children, Does the Heartbeat
Saltpig, Saltpig
Semuta, Glacial Erratic
SoftSun, Daylight in the Dark
Spacedrifter, When the Colors Fade
Sun Moon Holy Cult, Sun Moon Holy Cult
Ten Ton Slug, Colossal Oppressor
Tet, Tet
Tigers on Opium, Psychodrama
Tommy and the Teleboys, Gods Used in Great Condition
Troy the Band, Cataclysm
Weather Systems, Ocean Without a Shore
Esben Willems, Glowing Darkness
Young Acid, Murder at Maple Mountain
Notes:
First about Guhts: From the Andy Patterson recording and parts of the songs themselves, Guhts weren’t hiding influence from the likes of SubRosa or Julie Christmas, Made Out of Babies, etc., but what Regeneration did so well — and what I was trying to convey above — was take those recognizable elements and redirect them toward an expressive individuality. That album could be punishingly heavy or sweet and soothing and the fact that you never quite knew which was coming next was a major asset working in the band’s favor. There are a lot of killer debuts on this list, and plenty I’m sure that I’ve left off because, well, I’m inept, but Regeneration was so sure of what it was about and so crisp in making that real through sound that it’s still stunning.
A lot to celebrate on this list. Full Earth at the outset of a hopefully long-term progression. Tigers on Opium with attitude and craft. Castle Rat giving stage drama studio life. Weather Systems picking up where Anathema left off. Promising starts for Pontiac, Hashtronaut, Neon Nightmare, Cleen, Coltaine, Troy the Band, Buzzard, Magic Fig, Legions of Doom, and Heath, among others. If you’re worried about the state of underground heavy music, you don’t need to be. Granted the future of anything is unknowable even before you apply “uncertain times” caveats and all the rest, but bands are stepping up to carry the torch of established sounds and pushing themselves to realize new ideas — whether that’s Guhts and Magic Fig or Tigers on Opium, or Legions of Doom, Ten Ton Slug, Weather Systems and Monolord’s Esben Willems, new players or ones who’ve been around for decades.
If you want a top ten — and who doesn’t? — in addition to Guhts, make your way through Full Earth, Sun Moon Holy Cult, Morpholith, Guenna, Coltaine, Troy the Band, Young Acid, Emu, Buzzard and Kant to start, and you can dig deeper from there. That’s actually 11, but I don’t care. More new music won’t hurt you.
We press on.
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Short Release of the Year 2024
Moura, Fume Santo de Loureiro
Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc.
Aktopasa, Ultrawest
Alreckque, 6PM
Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands
Conan, DIY Series Issue 1
Cortége, Under the Endless Sky
Cult of Dom Keller, Extinction EP
Michael Rudolph Cummings, Money EP
Deer Lord, Dark Matter Pt. 2
Eagle Twin & The Otolith, Legends of the Desert Vol. 4
Fuzznaut, Wind Doula
Fuzzter, Pandemonium EP
Geezer & Isaak, Interstellar Cosmic Blues and the Riffalicious Stoner Dudes
Harvestman, Triptych EP(s)
Hermano, When the Moon Was High
Hollow Leg, Dust & Echoes
Holy Fingers, Endless Light Infinite Presence
King Buffalo, Balrog
Lurcher, Breathe EP
Okkoto, All is Light
Ord Cannon, Foreshots EP
Orme, No Serpents No Saviours
Pelican, Adrift/Tending the Embers
Pontiac, Hard Knox EP
Rope Trick, Red Tide EP
Sacred Buzz, Radio Radiation
Smoke & Doomsday Profit, Split
Spiral Guru, Silenced Voices EP
Toad Venom, Jag har inga problen osv...
Trigona & IO Audio Recordings, Split
Various Artists, International Space Station Vol. 2
Notes:
This category includes so much and can range so vastly between an EP that’s about 30 seconds short of being a full album to a standalone single released just for the hell of it to a band’s first rehearsal room demo. “Short releases” encompasses a lot, and as noted above, I’ve already broken my rules about where splits go. What about The Otolith and Eagle Twin? Geezer and Isaak? Smoke and Doomsday Profit? Trigona and IO Audio Recordings? The International Space Station four-wayer? If I’m crossing lines, don’t these also need to be considered as full-lengths?
You know what really sucks about it? This is an argument I’m going to have with myself for probably the next year. An existential crisis playing out in the back of my mind. More important? The Moura EP. The soundtracky textures the Spanish folk-informed progressive psychedelic rockers brought to the follow-up for their second album were both otherworldly and ground-born, and the material put emphasis on how much care and craft goes into their work while retaining the organic core against the threat of pretense. It was my most listened to short release of 2024, followed by Pelican, Holy Fingers, Pontiac, Toad Venom, Hollow Leg (x2), and Sacred Buzz. A new King Buffalo single was a late-year boon, that Hermano was worth it for the previously-unreleased studio track alone, and strong showings from Michael Rudolph Cummings, Deer Lord, Conan and Cortége, along with the aforementioned splits, assured that through the entire year, attention spans would receive consistent challenge in the movement from one thing to the next.
By way of a familiar confession, my list of short releases is nowhere near complete. It never is, and it never really could be. I’m sure there will be some I left out that I’ll add in for honorable mentions, etc., but I stand by the Moura pick for best short outing. They brought a soul to it that put the lie to the notion of EPs as between-album gap-fillers, and in a year that didn’t lack substance among its brevity-focused options, Fume Santo de Loureiro stood out in character, aesthetic and songwriting. Nobody else is making music quite like Moura.
If you have more to add here, by all means, please and thank you. Comments are below.
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Live Albums
Live Album of the Year 2024
Temple Fang, Live at Krach Am Bach
Castle, One Knight Stands: Live in NY
Danava, Live
Elder, Live at Maida Vale
Snail, Thou Art There
Stöner, Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch
Sula Bassana & Skyjoggers, Split
The Whims of the Great Magnet, Live at Bankastudios Maastricht 22-12-2023
Notes:
Fewer releases listed here than last year, but some killer ones for that. I put Temple Fang out there as live album of the year, and since we’re late in the post I’ll tell you honestly that it probably could be any of these on a given day. Danava’s live record crossed decades in badassery, the Sula/Skyjoggers split captured the vibe of a club night in Germany, the Whims of the Great Magnet’s live release made an excellent predecessor to their out-this-month studio album, Snail recorded theirs at a show I put on, Stöner capture the end of their two-album cycle with an awesome set, and Elder are Elder. The Maida Vale recording is short, and their songs are long, or you probably would’ve heard a lot more about that this year. If/when they do a proper live album, it will be a no-brainer.
But the Temple Fang has it all in molten progressivism, heavy tones, immersive psychedelia and outright soul, and of the bands I’ve managed to list here — if you want to add to the list, please do — there’s nobody who so much defines what they do by its live incarnation. Temple Fang’s music changes every night. They follow where it leads in a different way, and the ritualization of their performance comes through in Live at Krach Am Bach resoundingly. I’m not saying a bad word about their studio work to this point, but their heart manifests in a different way and at a different level onstage. They’re a great band and this shows a big part of why.
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Looking Ahead to 2025
Names, right? This one’s all about the names? Get to the names, jack? Okay, calm down.
With eternal appreciation to the folks of fine, upstanding moral character in the ‘The Obelisk Collective’ group on Facebook for the assistance, here’s a smattering of what one might look forward to in 2025:
Aawks, After Nations, All Them Witches, Amber Asylum, Author & Punisher, Bandshee, Black Spirit Crown, Bog Wizard, Bone Church, Borracho, Bronco, Buzzard, Dee Calhoun, Causa Sui, The Cimmerian, Clutch, Conan, Corrosion of Conformity, Daevar, Dead Meadow, Dead Shrine, Demons My Friends, Dream Unending, DUNDDW, Dunes, Flummox, Fuzz Sagrado, FVZZ POPVLI, Gaytheist, Gin Lady, Gnarled, Gnod & White Hills, Gods and Punks, Godzillionaire, Haze Mage, Kaiser, Kal-El, King Buffalo, Lamassu, Lo-Pan, Madmess, Mantar, Masters of Reality, Messa, Seán Mulrooney, Mouth., New Dawn Fades, Nightstalker, Øresund Space Collective, Pentagram, Pesta, Pothamus, Dax Riggs, Seedy Jeezus, Slomatics, Slow Wake, Stoned Jesus, Stone Machine Electric, Temple Fang, 3rd Ear Experience, Triptykon, Trouble, Turtle Skull, Warlung, Weedpecker, Yawning Balch, Year of the Cobra, YOB… and because it still hasn’t happened and someone invariably calls me out if they’re not listed: Om.
If you have names to add, “smash that comment button,” in the parlance of our times. Only don’t really smash it because you might hurt your hand or break your phone with your awesome strength.
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THANK YOU
It was among my primary goals for this post that it should be shorter than last year’s, and it looks like I’ll achieve that with room to spare, so I’m glad. Sometimes I get carried away, I think I probably don’t need to tell you.
Before I let go of 2024 — actually I still want to review that The Whims of the Great Magnet studio release and I’ve got a Darsombra video premiere set before the end of the year, news to catch up on from like the last two weeks and a whole lot more to cover — I’d like to take a moment to thank you one more time for reading and for being part of this project this year and each year it’s been ongoing. Your support is absolutely what keeps this site going and it means more to me than I can ever hope to comprehend.
Thank you to The Patient Mrs., who in the course of a given week let alone year puts up with more of my bullshit than any human being should ever have to. “Yes, love, the world’s ending and we have no money and the house is falling down around us and the dog needs to pee, but I just need two or three hours to go sit and write about riffs — is that cool?” Or better, when I’m pissy about it. The “my wife is a saint” routine is pretty played out as far as dudely excuses for being selfish, lazy and/or dumb go, but well, I am all of those things on the extreme regular and she hasn’t booted my ass to the curb yet. I find this to be a reason to celebrate and a thing to appreciate. I am loved and cared for in ways I could never hope to earn.
Thank you to my family for their support, year in and year out. They’ve all got Obelisk shirts and they all wear them, and while I’m not sure they understand the true depths of egoistic depravity involved in this project, they’ve been on board with it since the start, and this includes my wife’s side of the family as well. I am incredibly lucky to have the life I have.
I’m going to keep listening to music, keep writing about it as much as I can. I’m not quite as generally panicked about it as I used to be — older, busier in different ways, over the FOMO, maybe a little more discerning in terms of taste? — and I’m significantly less likely to break my brain answering email, but I’m doing my best.
The Obelisk presses on into what will be a busy 2025. I’ve got trips slated to Planet Desert Rock Weekend in Las Vegas this January, Desertfest Oslo in May, Freak Valley in Germany in June, Bear Stone in Croatia in July, and Desertfest New York in September, with more hopefully to come. I look forward to these adventures and to doing the writing that will happen as part of them, and one more time, I thank you for your time and attention in reading, in the past, now, and in the future. I’m taking tomorrow off. All the way off. Back on Monday for more.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This is the first Orange Goblin date I’ve seen for 2025, and surely won’t be the last fest the UK troupe headline as they continue to support this year’s Science, Not Fiction (review here) in Europe and beyond. At Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Athens — the first time Italy’s Heavy Psych Sounds has put on one of its branded festivals in Greece — Tuber, Belzebong, Black Rainbows and Acid Mammoth will join in the fray of the two-nights/two-clubs event set for March 7 and 8, plus more names still to be unveiled. Of those, Tuber and Acid Mammoth represent the fertile native Greek underground, and it’s unlikely they’ll be the only ones to do so by the time the lineup is done. There’s no lack of bands to choose from between now and the end of winter.
The announcement came through today with what’s probably ultimately about half the bill — unless they’re really packing them in, which is always possible; I don’t know if Arch Club or Universe have more than one stage — but it’s a strong start either way and a way to let the heavy heads of Athens know that a thing is happening as tickets go on presale. This may be the first time in Athens, but it’s not at all Heavy Psych Sounds‘ first time branching into new territory, and you’ll note the partnership here with local producer TMR Entertainment Group, which continues a thread of aligning with regional promoters to ensure things go off with no more hitches than one might generally encounter in stoner-anything.
Another killer two-dayer, and that this sentence started with “another” should be taken as a sign of how utterly spoiled the world is for heavy festivals. Think about where you were and weren’t four years ago.
From the PR wire:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ATHENS 2025
– FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ATHENS – 7th and 8th MARCH 2025 –
FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED TODAY
THE HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST is landing in Athens for the first time on March 7 & 8, 2025, bringing with it an unstoppable rock earthquake! For two electrifying nights, ARCH Club and Universe will transform into hotspots for the stoner, doom, and psych rock scene, hosting some of the genre’s most legendary names.
Today Heavy Psych Sounds Records in cooperation with TMR Entertainment Group is announcing the FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS !!
– HPS FEST ATHENS 2025 – 7th and 8th March @ Arch Club @ Universe
FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS
ORANGE GOBLIN TUBER BELZEBONG BLACK RAINBOWS ACID MAMMOTH + more TBA
It’s a rare band that one might call hungry 10 records into a nearly-30-year career, but as Orange Goblin return with their first LP in six years, Science, Not Fiction — also their label-debut for Peaceville Records — they transpose the more metallic aggression that typified 2018’s The Wolf Bites Back (review here) and 2014’s Back from the Abyss(review here) onto a production sound more decisively rooted in heavy rock and roll. As a result, not only do songs like the declarative opener “The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine” — which gives making-his-first-on-album-appearance bassist/backing vocalist Harry Armstrong, who joined in 2021, the honor of starting off after a few seconds of threatening rumble — or “(Not) Rocket Science,” the classically Motörheaded “Cemetery Rats,” “The Fury of a Patient Man,” the penultimate “The Justice Knife,” and so on, pummel you into the ground, but they do so with an overarching vibe as natural as the dirt you’re about to eat.
Armstrong, guitarist Joe Hoare, drummer Christopher Turner and vocalist Ben Ward recorded with producer Mike Exeter — who also mixed (Peter Hewitt-Dutton mastered) and notably worked on Black Sabbath‘s 13 album as well as several other catalog releases from doom’s forebears, has helmed outings for latter-day Judas Priest, etc. — and are well served by the character and shape of the resulting sound, which is less about isolating each element in its own everything-else-muted waveform than bringing together the entirety with as much force as possible. And if it needs to be said, in Orange Goblin‘s case, there’s a lot possible.
That’s not to say Science, Not Fiction — and as someone who appreciates a well-placed comma, the title is all the more admirable for the heavy lifting it does in framing the perspective of the lyrics to pieces like “(Not) Rocket Science” and “False Hope Diet” — is all thrust. Since 1997’s Frequencies From Planet Ten (discussed here), Orange Goblin have been about a more dynamic take on songwriting, and however much they might be defined here by charge, Science, Not Fiction is characteristic in its ability to change it up around that, whether that’s manifest in the midtempo groove of “False Hope Diet” — which is the longest inclusion at 7:13 and a duly grim assessment of the current age echoing the watch-the-world-melt/we’re-all-screwed-and-it’s-our-own-fault point of view in “The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine” — the piano introducing “Cemetery Rats” or the breakdown in closer “End of Transmission,” which feels as self-referential in its near-psychedelic divergence as in the namedropping of past full-lengths.
But even these moments carry the tension of the surges and gnashing around them, and while the band aren’t shy in telegraphing their own intensity amid the swinging slowdown in the nod beneath the somehow-motivational layered shouts in the second half of “Ascend the Negative” — lines like “Reclaim your time, reclaim your mind, conquer negativity” feel a bit like Ward self-coaching through his well-publicized experience of getting sober (nothing against that, of course) but are ultimately too intelligent to fall into a St. Anger-style trap of therapist-delivered cliché maxims — just because you know the next punch is coming doesn’t make the bruise any less purple afterward.
Indeed, across the 53-minute entirety of Science, Not Fiction‘s deluxe edition, which includes the bonus track “Eye of the Minotaur,” one finds Orange Goblin doing nothing so much as owning who they are through reaffirmations of perspective, craft and character, and the challenge being issued is more inward than out. That is, they’re pushing themselves to hit their own high standards, whether that’s in capturing the sweeping energy of who they are onstage (in which I’d argue they’re successful) or in the level of songwriting that lets “Gemini (Twins of Evil)” feel so fluid in the groove it rides while remaining memorable (despite being tucked into on side B with “The Justice Knife,” away from ‘focus tracks’ like “(Not) Rocket Science” and “The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine” at the album’s outset.
All of it is quintessential Orange Goblin, from the hook “It’s not rocket science and we’re doing alright” — one wonders who the “we” is there; if it’s human beings generally, the point is arguable; if it’s the band itself, kudos on the humility since by that time, about seven minutes into the record, they’re kicking a fair amount of ass — to “This isn’t over/We’ve got the devil’s work to do” in “Gemini (Twins of Evil).” And while the boundary pushing that comes through feels born of uniting past and present styles, this too feeds into the idea of Orange Goblin declaring themselves, taking uncompromising ownership of who they are as a band, and putting it directly in the face of those fortunate enough to listen.
No doubt some of those will be newcomers to the band, whether that’s listeners beginning to make their way into the heavy underground or those who up till now just haven’t taken them on. In that regard, the vitality of Science, Not Fiction seems primed to serve as a righteous introduction to what Orange Goblin do in uniting metal, punk, heavy rock and various other substyles under those umbrellas. The reference to past work in “End of Transmission,” or maybe even the way it shifts into an early-’90s-style brooding spoken part after the midpoint, would surely find its impression enriched in the context of prior releases, but I’m not sure that hurts the basic listening experience of the song taken on its own merits so much as it might add another layer of appreciation after the fact.
And if you wanted to show someone what Orange Goblin are about, cuts like “Cemetery Rats,” “The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine,” and “False Hope Diet” represent them at their absolute best, as veterans who may have moved beyond youthful arrogance but still have something to say and a suitable propulsion with which to say it. Because of this, it matters little if Science, Not Fiction is your first Orange Goblin record or if you tape-traded the Our Haunted Kingdom demo in 1994; they sound fresh, excited and exciting in these songs in a way that can only be considered definitive. They are unmistakable, and this album is a welcome example of why.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 28th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Orange Goblin will this summer lay claim to the fire at the centre of the earth (among other things) with the July 19 arrival of their new album, Science, Not Fiction, and honestly, a reminder of that is probably enough to justify this post on its own, but the London stalwarts announced this UK/Ireland tour with Conan last week while my head was ostriched in the Quarterly Review, and that pairing is too good to let slip. Plus it’s not until October, so the idea that I’m ‘late’ on posting the news is an illusion bred by social media brain-shortening. December would be late.
There are two singles streaming from the impending Science, Not Fiction in the title-track and “Cemetery Rats,” both of which have a shove behind them one can only call signature Orange Goblin groove and push. Not that I can confirm or deny having heard it or anything, but the whole album is a burner. Conan reportedly have a new LP in the works as well, which will be their first to feature bassist David Riley (ex-Fudge Tunnel), who joined late last year. No idea whether that will be 2024 or 2025, but my suspicion is the latter.
But there’s no time like the nearer-future to get yourself pummeled by two of England’s finest, so here are the dates:
Not only are we releasing a new album in July, but we are going on tour in October around the UK & Ireland and taking our good friends in Conan with us!
Tickets for the Orange Goblin ‘Science, Not Fiction’ UK & Ireland tour in October 2024 are on sale NOW and already selling fast so don’t miss out!
04.10 – Opium, Dublin, REP. OF IRELAND 05.10 – Limelight 2, Belfast, N. IRELAND 06.10 – King Tut’s, Glasgow, UK 08.10 – Gorilla, Manchester, UK 09.10 – KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton, UK 10.10 – The Fleece, Bristol, UK 11.10 – The 1865, Southampton, UK 12.10 – The Dome, London, UK
Artwork by: Machine
Orange Goblin is: Ben Ward – Vocals Joe Hoare – Guitar Harry Armstrong – Bass / Backing vocals Christopher Turner – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
After the reveal of the first single “(Not) Science Fiction” yesterday — it’s also below if you don’t feel like opening another tab; I’ll tell you up front it’s not every band that gets two posts in two days around here — Orange Goblin have followed up this morning with an announcement for the July 19 release of Science, Not Fiction, their 10th album, and the launch of preorders through Peaceville Records.
Word of the album came through their email list, and according to that, it was sent to subscribers a few hours early, so I’ve delayed posting this in an effort to not be, well, a prick about it. But I mean, if you heard the track yesterday — and if not, don’t think you’re late — then I think the turn in production style from 2018’s The Wolf Bites Back (review here) or 2014’s Back from the Abyss(review here), that sharper, more metallic edge in the sound, makes sense. They don’t come on stage to, “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna be a metal band.” They come out to classic heavy rock. What I hear in “(Not) Rocket Science,” aside from the optimism of the lyric, “We’re doing alright” — which, as a species, are we really? — is Orange Goblin‘s version of that. It’s not about going back to an earlier style, necessarily, because the point of view, sound and style is new, but about bringing a more organic-feeling side of their sound forward. I’ve only heard the one song, so can’t tell you more about the record than that, but I hear purpose there and am intrigued to find out where the rest of Science, Not Fiction goes.
The tracklisting below is the CD digipak version, which comes with a bonus track. That’s the one I ordered, so that’s what I’m using. The info below is combined from the email they sent to subscribers (that’s your hint to sign up for their mailing list), the preorder page on Merchnow, and the tour dates I think I initially grabbed from their Facebook. If it seems like a hodgepodge, that’s probably why.
I probably should’ve gotten a t-shirt bundle. Alas:
ORANGE GOBLIN – SCIENCE, NOT FICTION – JULY 19TH 2024 – PRE-ORDER NOW!
Science, Not Fiction – the band’s 10th studio album. Recorded and produced by Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Tony Iommi) at Woodworm Studios in Oxfordshire over a few weekends at the end of 2023.
Available as: 10 Track Double 45rpm Vinyl (various colour choices) 10 Track Deluxe Digipak CD 9 Track CD Range of merch bundle combinations available.
Originally formed in London under the name Our Haunted Kingdom back in 1995, celebrated UK metal greats Orange Goblin entered the world of heavy music as wide-eyed enthusiasts, eager to channel the fire and fury of their favourite bands. Emerging amid the exhilarating melee of the mid-‘90s stoner rock and doom explosion, Orange Goblin’s debut album ‘Frequencies From Planet Ten’ was released via underground imprint Rise Above Records in October 1997.
Since then, the quartet has shared the stage with legendary acts such as Alice Cooper, Danzig, and Heaven & Hell among numerous others on their rise to prominence. A stream of critically acclaimed and widely revered studio albums also added to Orange Goblin’s substantial legacy, from early classics like ‘Time Travelling Blues’ and ‘The Big Black’ through to more recent triumphs like 2012’s universally praised ‘A Eulogy For The Damned’ and 2018’s equally hailed ‘The Wolf Bites Back’.
Fast forward to 2021 and Orange Goblin ushered in a new era of metal chaos, signing with legendary UK metal imprint Peaceville Records, with long-standing trio Ben Ward, Joe Hoare & Chris Turner joined by new bassist Harry Armstrong for this next chapter.
The first fruits of this union manifest in new studio album ‘Science, Not Fiction’; an absorbing exploration (and exploitation) of the world as seen through the three fundamental factors; Science, Spirituality, & Religion and how they determine and affect the human condition. Commandingly articulated as ever through vocalist Ben Ward, this is backed by Orange Goblin’s unmistakably catchy and accomplished yet often deceptively intricate brand of Sabbath-ian Heavy Metal thunder.
‘Science, Not Fiction’ was recorded at Woodworm Studios UK in late 2023, with production and mixing duties carried out by Grammy winning producer Mike Exeter (most notable for his work with Black Sabbath) and mastering was conducted by the esteemed Peter Hewitt-Dutton at The Bakery in LA.
This edition of ‘Science, Not Fiction’ is presented on digipack format, including the bonus track, ‘Eye of the Minotaur’, including 20 page booklet.
Tracklisting: 1. The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine [05:19] 2. (Not) Rocket Science [04:21] 3. Ascend The Negative [05:23] 4. False Hope Diet [06:57] 5. Cemetary Rats [05:57] 6. The Fury Of A Patient Man [03:01] 7. Gemini (Twins Of Evil) [05:05] 8. The Justice Knife [04:58] 9. End Of Transmission [05:51] Bonus Tracks 10. Eye Of The Minotaur [04:32]
Orange Goblin live: 06.04 – Cyclone (Shibuya) – Tokyo, JAPAN (w/ Church of Misery) 07.04 – Soccer Factory, Osaka, JAPAN 09.04 – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide, AUSTRALIA 10.04 – The Basement, Canberra, AUSTRALIA 11.04 – The Zoo, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA 12.04 – Crowbar, Sydney, AUSTRALIA 13.04 – The Croxton, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA 15.04 – Mothership, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND 16.04 – Rolling Stone, Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND 17.04 – Valhalla, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
