Orange Goblin

London, England’s Orange Goblin forged a sound rooted in harsh doom and stoner metal, laced with expansive space rock and blues textures that echoed the gritty, riff-driven style of Kyuss, Electric Wizard, Fu Manchu, and Witchfinder General. The group first assembled in 1995 as Our Haunted Kingdom, issuing a 1996 split-single alongside Electric Wizard on Rise Above Records before settling on its present name. From the start, 1997’s explosive Frequencies from Planet 10 showcased a potent live presence and a studio approach that fused stoner-metal heft with classic hard-rock foundations and raw punk urgency.

After gaining traction in underground circles, the band reached its commercial high point in 2012 with the seventh album A Eulogy for the Damned, which earned widespread critical praise. Later releases such as Back from the Abyss, The Wolf Bites Back, and Science, Not Fiction continued to probe the outer reaches of heavy music while preserving the quartet’s signature blend of seismic, Sabbath-inspired riffs, saturated space-rock atmospheres, and thick groove-metal grooves.

Vocalist Ben Ward, guitarist Joe Hoare, rhythm guitarist Pete O’Malley, bassist Martyn Millard, and drummer Chris Turner formed the lineup out of mutual admiration for Groundhogs, Motörhead, Thin Lizzy, Celtic Frost, Danzig, and Black Flag. A split 7-inch recorded under the earlier moniker with Electric Wizard preceded the 1997 debut Frequencies from Planet 10, whose lyrics drew partial inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The follow-ups Time Travelling Blues (1998) and The Big Black (2000) stayed aligned with traditional doom and stoner metal, yet 2002’s Coup de Grace introduced a sharper punk edge and featured guest contributions from Kyuss’s John Garcia and Nebula’s Tom Davies.

Thieving from the House of God (2004) included a cover of ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid” and marked the first Orange Goblin recording without Pete O’Malley, who departed to focus on an art career; the remaining members carried on as a four-piece. Departing Rise Above in 2007, the band signed with Sanctuary Records for its sixth album, Healing Through the Fire, which drew thematic influence from the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire that followed, though it was not conceived as a literal concept record. Moving to Candlelight Records yielded 2012’s A Eulogy for the Damned, which appeared on numerous year-end lists and supported an extensive world tour encompassing 161 performances across 28 countries.

The live album A Eulogy for the Fans: Orange Goblin Live 2012 preceded the 2014 studio release Back from the Abyss. In 2018 the group delivered its ninth full-length, The Wolf Bites Back, produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost) and featuring a guest appearance by former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell. After a six-year recording break, the tenth album Science, Not Fiction emerged in 2024, produced by Grammy-winning engineer Mike Exeter and centered on themes of science, spirituality, and religion.