ORANGE GOBLIN

Ester Segarra photo

Back in the groove

Stoner rock has become somewhat of a vague term when describing heavy music. Like the weed that gives the genre its name, it has many branches. It’s fair to say though, that the seed was planted with British icons Black Sabbath. So it seems odd that over the years the U.K. would fail to clone similar bands. However, there are a few that have sprouted up and London, England’s Orange Goblin have been smoking grooved out riffs since 1995 – around the time the stoner rock movement began to take shape in the U.S.


“I don’t really have any feelings about the term either way. Throughout our back catalogue we’ve had songs that could be penned as stoner and we still have on the new record. I don’t even know what it means, to be honest. [It’s] because the term envelopes so many bands of so many differing styles that it’s almost redundant,” ponders bass player Martyn Millard. “The word stoner, as far as I can tell was born in the U.S., to describe the bands the media and public were watching, and that’s cool, [as] it just so happens that other bands got thrown in with that too. One British band, who were probably more stoner than most and certainly a huge influence on Orange Goblin, were Acrimony from Wales. They should’ve been much bigger than they were and I believe that if they had grown up in California then they would’ve been.”



Pigeonholing any band’s music is usually a sure fire way to get their annoyance level up. It is no different with Orange Goblin and you can sense a bit of annoyance in Millard’s words. This is with good reason because they touch down on many more musical landscapes with influences that would include hardcore, punk, heavy metal and ‘70s rock. They mix it up nicely on the recently released Back From The Abyss, which is their eighth to date. With the Sabbath-y roar of “Into The Arms Of Morpheus” to the Motorhead-ish rumblings of “The Devils Whip,” the album fires on full throttle all the time, taking the typical Orange Goblin amp crushing ingredients up to the next level. A state that sounds like a rejuvenation of sorts and this can be expected from a band that just two years ago decided to quit their day jobs and have a full-fledged go at making the band their career. “The reception and feedback we got for A Eulogy For The Damned (2012) took all four of us by surprise. So I guess the new title hints at us being almost forgotten in some circles and coming back with a little bit of a bang,” Millard reveals. “Because it’s our living now, we have to keep it fresh and interesting.”

With a consistent lineup of Millard, guitarist/vocalist Ben Ward, guitarist Joe Hoare and Chris Turner on drums they continue to get tighter as they go. It’s not often that a band can stay together for almost twenty years with the same line up. This no doubt helps in the cohesiveness department. “We are lucky that we are genuinely best friends. We used to all share a flat together in the early days so we know how one another works. For the most part we enjoy each other’s company. Humour is a huge factor in surviving for this long.”

Now free of the ‘real world’ workplace doldrums, Orange Goblin aren’t looking back as they light it up and burn things down. Now it is up to you to come by and have a hit as Down, Bl’ast and King Parrot join the ride for this night of heaviness.

Orange Goblin play The Commodore Ballroom Dec. 11

-by Heath Fenton