Orange Goblin
The Big Black

THE REVIEW

I traded the desert for outer space, the sand that burned beneath my nails for stardust, the blues born from the red sun for the stoner of a black hole. I fractured the line that separated the sky and the earth, to recompose it with a splint of silicon and electric cables: the horizon is no longer my destination, but my launchpad.

Now I ride the Turbo Elephant and my destination is the cosmic plains. The pachyderm is doped with mescaline and distillery rocket fuel, but it holds the course well and I’m not afraid. I launch the animal on a path of broken heart shards, sliding on a neon rainbow that only appears when it rains acid. On the back seat, clinging to my hips to avoid falling off, chaos has the features of a woman named Folgore: the solar titans, Quincy the Pig Boy, and the Lord of the Hornets await us.

All around me will be The Big Black (2000): the “soul of the ancient stoner race”, omnipotent presence, sublime power. A cosmic aggregation, a primordial soup of shameless Sabbath reminiscences (“Hot Magic, Red Placet”, and all the others), appearances of raucous wah wahs (“Scorpionica”) and raw and naked Doom, oppressive and suffocating (“The Big Black”). Big bang of rocky distortions, southern guitars launched two hundred light-years an hour (“Turbo Effalunt”) and cosmic peace of dreamy and visionary interludes, wanderings and staggering like a drunk among desolate, hypnotic, desert-astral scenarios (“Cozmo Bozo”, “You’ll Never Get To The Moon In That”).

The result is a splendid and highly successful hybrid of the diverse personalities of the London quintet-quartet: less psychedelic and effect-laden than the debut “Frequencies From The Planet Ten” of ‘97, less biker-like than the previous “Time Travelling Blues” of '98, less metal than the subsequent “Coupe De Grace” of ‘02. Between Kyuss, Cathedral, and Nebula, but with a certain party attitude. Well played and well produced by Billy Anderson. With the blessing of John Garcia.

“God's on my side, baby

But the Devil calls my tunes

And I've been feeling lately

This whole universe is doomed”