ORANGE GOBLIN have finished work on their upcoming new album and are preparing for its summer release.
The legendary British rock band holed up at Orgone Studios with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Grave Pleasures, Paradise Lost, Cathedral) to create their latest opus, titled The Wolf Bites Back. The resulting nine track album will be the band’s ninth studio release and will be released via Candlelight/ Spinefarm Records worldwide.
Vocalist, Ben Ward, commented:
“We are very excited about this new album. The Wolf Bites Back is our strongest and most diverse collection of songs to date, it’s certainly a lot darker both musically and lyrically. It is still definitely a distinct ORANGE GOBLIN album but we have incorporated a lot more variation on this record and there are hints of Can, Captain Beyond, Wishbone Ash and The Stooges nestling amongst the obvious Sabbath and Motorhead influences. Lyrically I have explored everything from alien serial killers to zombie biker gangs, Buddhist warriors through to descendants of the Salem witches!
“There was definitely a concerted effort to make sure all the songs could work in a live environment which gives the album a more raw, stripped back feel – something that I feel has been lacking from good rock and metal in recent years. Working with Jaime Gomez Arellano was really productive and a great experience, especially going back to tracking stuff to tape. I feel that he got the best out of all of us as musicians and songwriters and that really comes across in the songs, there is an air of confidence and experience. It was also a real honour for us to have Phil Campbell of Motorhead lending his hand to a couple of solos on there too!”
The full track list and artwork will be released at a later date, but the band have confirmed titles such as Son of Salem, Ghost Of The Primitives, Burn The Ships, Zeitgeist and Suicide Division. Artwork will be created by Roland Scriver at Familiar Ink.
ORANGE GOBLIN will play festival dates across Europe this summer including the below show in the UK.
Sat 16 Jun – Stone Free Festival, O2 Arena, London
The Wolf Bites Back is scheduled for a June 2018 release.
ONLINE
LINEUP
Martyn Millard Bass
Chris Turner Drums
Joe Hoare Guitars
Ben Ward Vocals
BIOGRAPHY
Heavy Metal is not just about music: it's a way of life, a motivating mind-set, a positive force and an inspirational belief system. It's the most exciting, life-affirming noise that exists on this planet of ours, and London's indestructible masters of the furious form are Orange Goblin. Not just the UK's reigning champions of balls-out, party-starting, booze-fuelled metal, but one of the very best live rock bands of all time, the mighty Goblin have been a permanent and universally admired fixture on the British metal circuit for the past 18 years. With 2012’s ‘A Eulogy for the Damned', their seventh and best studio album, they cemented their place amongst the British metal elite. The album is a thunderous tour-de-force of gargantuan riffs, subterranean rumble and electrifying energy, it is the album the band had been threatening to make since they first crawled, from the grubby Soho shadows back in 1995.
Inspired by the gods of hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock and underground extremity, from Sabbath, Motörhead and Thin Lizzy through to Celtic Frost, Danzig and Black Flag, Orange Goblin were initially seen as major contenders amid the mid-90s stoner rock explosion, but it soon became apparent that this band had much more up their collective wizard's sleeve than red-eyed boogie and flapping flares. In fact, over the course of their roller coaster career, the band have proved themselves to be one of the most consistent and persistent forces in modern heavy music, amassing a catalogue of albums that rivals anything released during the same period. From the rambunctious, heads-down exuberance of their Frequencies From Planet Ten debut in 1997 through to the multi-genre bonfire of insanities that was 2007's Healing Through Fire, Orange Goblin have always kicked arse, always written songs that hit home like a stage diver's boot connecting with your forehead, always delivered the rampaging heavy metal goods while meaning every last riff, beat, solo and bellow.
But it is as a live band that Orange Goblin have founded their formidable reputation. Long renowned as skilled crowd-pleasers and party masters, the band have toured all over the world and shared stages with countless big names, including Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Clutch, Motorhead, Sex Pistols, Queens Of The Stone Age, Dio, Monster Magnet and many more. They have headlined sell-out shows at New York's revered CBGB's, Los Angeles' notorious Troubadour and venues across the world. They have also blown fields full of minds at such prestigious festivals as Sonisphere, Download, Hellfest, Soundwave, Bloodstock Open Air, Roadburn, Dynamo, Maryland Death Fest and High Voltage. An Orange Goblin show is a guaranteed good time…all you need to do is get the beers in, prepare your neck muscles for maximum punishment and surrender to the sound of a grand heavy metal institution letting rip at full throttle.
A lean, mean hard rocking' machine…the eight-legged tag team of frontman Ben Ward, bassist Martyn Millard, guitarist Joe Hoare and drummer Chris Turner reached a new peak of creativity and intensity on 'A Eulogy For The Damned'. The album earned the band critical acclaim around the world, being voted No.3 in UK Metal Hammer magazines ‘Top Albums of 2012’. The same year Orange Goblin were voted ‘Best Band’ by the readers of Terrorizer magazine, as well as a whole load of other accolades for the band and album alike. They then followed it up in 2013 with the release of the bands first live album/DVD ‘A Eulogy For The Fans – Orange Goblin Live 2012’. This album deftly encapsulates everything that is exhilarating and admirable about this most dedicated and humble of British metal wrecking crews and deservedly propelled Orange Goblin to the front of the British metal queue. The band then embarked on their biggest world tour in 2013, playing 161 shows across 28 different countries including a first trip to Australia to participate in the now legendary Soundwave Festival, 2 full North American tours and a 3 month jaunt around the UK and Europe, while sharing the stage with such revered heavy rock luminaries as Clutch, Down and Airbourne. At last, after two decades of dogged defiance, the OG boys were smashing it on a global level and receiving the acclaim and respect that their efforts, talent and verve have long deserved.
Now it’s 2014 and Orange Goblin have recharged their batteries and pieced together a suitably thunderous and triumphant follow-up to ‘A Eulogy For The Damned’. Once again recorded with producer Jamie Dodd at The Animal Farm studio in the band’s native London, the band’s eighth studio album bears the ominous title ‘Back From The Abyss’ and comprises another neck-wrecking and sonically monstrous collecting of prime British metal, delivered with all the frenzied passion and jaw-shattering oomph that fans of this most consistent of bands have come to expect. All that remains is to witness the impact this latest unequivocal creative success will have on the OG faithful, not least when the band hit the road once again, embarking on another trek around the globe, electrifying crowds and leaving yet more trails of destruction in their wake. The party is starting all over again… whose round is it??
“‘Back from the Abyss’ is the sound of Orange Goblin firing on all cylinders!” roars frontman Ben Ward. “From the Sabbathian, weighty-groove of ‘Sabbath Hex’, the Motörhead-styled punk snarl of ‘The Devil’s Whip’, the epic, Maiden-esque gallop of ‘Mythical Knives’, through to the apocalyptic Doom of ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’; this is the best of all of our individual influences pulled together. We have created the definitive Orange Goblin album. Following the great, worldwide reception of ‘A Eulogy For The Damned’ and the subsequent 2 years of touring everywhere, we knew we had a lot to live up to. But we were prepared and entered the studio armed with an arsenal of killer riffs! They are all present on this album, continuing the Orange Goblin trend of never being afraid to move forward or trying something new. By doing so we have created a unique, heavy sound that lies somewhere between doom, stoner, classic metal, 70’s inspired heavy-rock, punk, blues and everything in between. We worked with Jamie Dodd again as he did such a great job on the last record and I think he has even gone one better this time around! Adding Jamie’s amazing production to the outstanding performances and songwriting of the band, we have made an album we are all very proud of. Our last album gave the band new life and sent us off into the unknown. This new album sees Orange Goblin stretching the limits once more… ‘Back From The Abyss’ and ready to rock all over again!!”
DISCOGRAPHY
Frequencies from Planet Ten - 1997
Time Travelling Blues - 1998
The Big Black - 2000
Coup de Grace - 2002
Thieving from the House of God - 2004
Healing Through Fire - 2007
A Eulogy for the Damned - 2012
Back from the Abyss - 2014
The Wolf Bites Back - 2018