Metal Underground.com

"A Eulogy For The Damned," Orange Goblin's seventh full-length studio album, finds the band splitting the difference between its two most obvious influences, Black Sabbath and Motorhead, for a listening experience that divides itself well between moody doom and thrashy punk sounds. It's no-frills guitar rock with sparks of technical virtuosity and psychedelia to liven things up.

Guitarist Joe Hoare is the hero here, with the speedy "Acid Trial" and the pure punk of "The Filthy And The Few" showing off his technical skills. Meanwhile, "Stand For Something" is a doomy blues grinder with a southern twist, while "The Fog" plays — at least instrumentally — like an outtake from Black Sabbath's "Master Of Reality."

Singer Ben Ward's voice now rivals the immortal Mr. Kilmister when it comes to gravel, but he manages to turn things tuneful on "A Eulogy To The Damned" and especially the slightly southern-fried "Save Me From Myself." The rhythm section of drummer Chris Turner and bassist Martyn Millard is never anything less than solid, with some truly stellar work on "Save Me From Myself" and "Death Of Aquarius."

The album's one bum track is "Return To Mars," which has some wonderfully psychedelic lyrics, but which loses cohesion somewhere between Hoare's riffing and the rhythm section. It's not a terrible track, but it certainly doesn't measure up to most of the rest of the disc.

With a sound that splits the difference between Sabbath and Motorhead, Orange Goblin serves up a potent dose of '70s-style metal on "A Eulogy For The Damned." Gloomy doom and punk power have seldom sounded so good together.