An unlikely voice of reason sparking up knee-deep in the brain’d mush of a new-age of disinformation might as well be considered anthemic anymore, especially now that this message of keeping it cool amidst upturned tables and shaken sense comes from well-respected London, England-borne heavy rock/stoner metal quartet ORANGE GOBLIN who’re wearing their own fantastically leathered skin on this inspired tenth full-length album. ‘Science, Not Fiction‘ has a bit of cock-eyed wisdom to spout at the outset but the lasting impression it’ll leave is one of revivification, energetic reassembly of their pub-and-stage ready doom rock n’ roll style set to a memorable grip of songs writ to express a full-featured ride through their oaken mind palace. Though it may be a bit overlong for my own taste the part of my brain that’d keyed into their sound back in the late 90’s is yet fully charmed by this chest-outspoken and clear-as-day restatement of purpose.

Orange Goblin formed circa 1995 after a brief stint as a melodic death/doom metal quintet (Our Haunted Kingdom) that’d left its faint mark per a split with Electric Wizard, another band who’d sported a more extreme sound in past incarnation, before changing their drummer, their name and their style. Soon finding their way into the halls of Lee Dorrian‘s obsession with doom metal via the early-ish days of Rise Above Records the band were considered a staple of said roster for the next several years. I’d encountered this band when their music’d suited my own tastes from 1997 through 2000, the coming-up period when the band’s style was considered stoner/doom metal and they’d been on-a-roll for their first three albums. Instead of going on about each I’d suggest this as the most essential “classic” period of the group where ‘The Big Black‘ (2000) was the quintessential LP from these folks and continues to be for old heads. If (like me) you’d found this new breed of supercharged psych-Sabbath rock grooves through early Fu Manchu, early 90’s Trouble, Monster Magnet and such for the sake of leaning a bit more of the classic side of stoner rock and heavy metal, they might’ve been kinda brash at a glance and weren’t as tuneful as some of their radio-ready contemporaries later on but this’d been an important group to track. For the last couple of decades beyond that point they’ve built a reputation as a consistent crew with their own righteous take on 70’s meets 90’s styled heavy rock.

As a fair-weather fan I’d found everything’d changed with the group somewhere around the release of ‘Coup de Grâce‘ in 2002, a different record which’d brought on a punkish and speeding Lemmy kinda ‘tude and a nixed the Iommi-forward float of their riffcraft. As an observer beyond that point it’d been one of their most talked about, I suppose popular albums spreading broader notice before they’d left Rise Above (after their 2004 record) and eventually landed on my least favorite portion of their discography, the Candlelight years which’d essentially spanned the late 2000’s through the 2010’s. I won’t get in too deep with it, in terms of my own collection I’d stopped picking their records up by ~2007 but I’d appreciated most of ‘Healing Through Fire‘ (2007) and ‘Back From the Abyss‘ (2014) for the ungentle reminders they’d given that Orange Goblin were still alive and making the case for stoner metal (without wanting to be called stoner metal.) At that point they’d circled back around in the way that many long-standing touring acts do, pulling into pure consistency, pleasing the crowd and sustaining their body of work via strong personality…. rather than compelling songcraft. Still, I’d say folks like me come back and check out every release from this band because they are perceived as an important name with an influential sound that’d obviously had some staying power.

The best possible pre-amble for what Orange Goblin are up to with ‘Science, Not Fiction‘ is of course 2018’s ‘The Wolf Bites Back‘ and not that the two records are particularly similar, they contrast in a very direct sense, but that ninth album took on quite a bit more in showing a more reverent side of the group with a clear focus on songcraft which’d included singular pieces that’d attempted a broader representative touch. It wasn’t half bad but it wasn’t classic-ass Orange Goblin either. In the process of exploring the larger span of what they were capable of it’d felt like they hit a few switches that’d been off since 2012 or so, the piano-bashing adrenaline rock and the Sabbath groove specifically, all of the ideas that’d arguably dropped off the table in recent years. Hit ’em with a years-long pandemic and here on the other side we’ve got the discharge built up since then fuming. There we find the band reaching deeper into the past for bigger riffs while also speaking up a bit more in their well-weathered wisdom.

Though ‘Science, Not Fiction‘ may very well be the band’s most complete, full-featured and driven heavy rock album in a decade or two you might have your attention yanked toward the lyrics upon induction and primarily for the sake of the commentary that runs through them. I wouldn’t necessarily accuse Orange Goblin of having something (anything) all that deep to say in the past, depends on the album, but here they’re spouting timely enough wisdom laced with the occasional hit of sarcasm… either way, a bit more than we’ve gotten out of them in a long while. The Sabbath-grooved anthem of opener “The Fire at the Centre of the Earth is Mine” and the piano-tapping boogie of “(Not) Rocket Science” both tout vintage wares in terms of the band’s late 90’s output while pressing the listener with some encouragement for those dooming their way through life, tying the thought off with “Ascend the Negative” soon after. I’m not sure if time off or sobriety lit a fire under meister Ward or if they’re simply focusing on a broader signature for the sake of (nostalgic) identity but either way it has lead to a better, all the more outwardly stated album which lines up nearer to my own tastes.

Speaking of my own tastes the addition of new bass guitarist Harry Armstrong, best known for his time fronting several bands including End of Level Boss and Hangnail as well as classic early 90’s death metal band Decomposed, is no small event as not only does he replace founding bassist Martyn Millard, who’d stepped away around ~2021, but he’s also collaborated with the songwriting process and certainly suits the band. More importantly this means we’ve got a big, loud bass guitar tone thumping throughout this record with more than a one-track mind in terms of effects and technique, be it kicking off the album opener with some foreshadowing for the main verse riff or adding a psychedelic growl to the mid-album doom droop of “Cemetery Rats”.

After ten albums you might expect a struggle in collapsing three decades worth of action into about fifty minutes but here they’ve done well to represent the Orange Goblin sound past and present without a too-severe bloat to the running order. The centre of ‘Science, Not Fiction‘ even bothers to reach for to the realm of doom with the aforementioned “Cemetery Rats” before striking upon one of the better punkish songs from the group since ‘Coup de Grâce‘ with “The Fury of a Patient Man” and I suppose right there we’ve managed to gather example(s) enough to confirm the holistic reach of the experience. This is the major accomplishment of the full listen beyond a few particularly infectious songs but we do ultimately trade away the succinct nature of the previous album in the process, where you’re maybe hitting about ~55 minutes (counting a bonus track for certain versions) and a hell of an ask considering not every song fully counts as we dig through the second half and pass right through the finale of “The Justice Knife” and “End of Transmission” where I’d ultimately felt this record had made its point by the 40 minute mark.

Part of the appeal here is nostalgia, a portion of my induction was morbid curiosity for the messaging, and with some admiration for the steadfast and honest statement made I’ve walked away from ‘Science, Not Fiction‘ more of a fan than I’d been in my previous state of late 90’s/early 2000’s remission. Orange Goblin have done a fine job of what they’d set out to do, be themselves and maybe write a catchier song or two along the way and this all amounts to a result which is well above expectations and above-average as an addition to their discography. A high recommendation.

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