Orange Goblin
A Eulogy for the Damned
Candlelight Records

If you’ve got a beard, own a bong, or ride a bike, chances are this year’s most anticipated release for you is Orange Goblin’s A Eulogy for the Damned. And why not? The band released its first six albums in ten years, and its now been damn near five years since 2007′s Healing Through Fire, so chances are you’ve got one hell of an itch to take to the starry highway to hit up OG’s cosmic dope show once again. But where the UK quartet was once raw and bloozy it is now cooked and mean, and the smoky caravan kitsch it once proudly boasted in its space-brewed riffs has given way to a prouder, louder form. In fact, aside from vocalist Ben Ward’s chain-link preaching, the Southern boogie doom of “Save Me From Myself” or the bold groove of “Return to Mars,” there’s very little left in the way of OG’s former scuzzy self, and what stands before you today is a tyrant fifteen stories tall, an angry world-eater with a heavy metal law to lay the fuck down. And this is a metal album in many ways thanks to songs like “Red Tide Rising,” “Acid Trial,” “The Fog,” “Death of Aquarius,” and “Bishop’s Wolf,” which is not something you could have really said about any past OG album. It is also very much a statement album, the aforementioned songs leaving the deepest cut, but even OG’s familiar stoner rock fare, like the melodic “Stand For Something” and “The Filthy and the Few” contain a demented edge to ‘em, and the acoustic-psych intro on closer “A Eulogy To The Damned” points to OG’s dark, force-fueled approach to making this record. If you’ve ever hoped that Orange Goblin would one day step up and make a power move, that they’d drop all that whiskey-soaked astro-noodling and put some steel and muscle into their tunes, A Eulogy for the Damned is your hope come true.

Listen to “Red Tide Rising” from A Eulogy for the Damned!

Monster Truck
The Brown EP
Self-Released

The Brown EP is Monster Truck’s second four-song output in as many years, and despite the fact that they roll through an EP’s worth of mean, 70s-fried rock in the same amount of time bands from that era devoted to one song, it’s still well worth the two beer it takes to get through it. A product of Steel Town, Canada (that’s Hamilton for you non-Canucks), Monster Truck is all hairy chests ‘neath leather vests and The Brown EP boasts a bad-ass, big-wheeled boogie that’ll blow your mud flaps way back. Nationally speaking, I’d put ‘em somewhere between the laid back roots n’ groove of The Sheepdogs and the million man spark of White Cowbell Oklahoma, but the way “I Am Freedom,” “Love Attack,” “Seven Seas Blues,” and “Righteous Smoke” crank the crotch mojo into the red, ride the organ like it was Gravedigger, and preach about souls on fire make ‘em sound like KISS, Grand Funk Railroad, and Mountain mud wrestling at a biker rally. Best part is, you can get this EP, and their self-titled one, for free right here. Boss, right? You bet, just like the tunes.

Listen to “I Am Freedom” from The Brown EP!

Grails
Deep Politics
Temporary Residence Limited

On Deep Politics, Grails’ oft-meditative instrumentation is dressed with an orchestral, cinematic ruching thanks in large part to the efforts of fiddler and composer Timba Harris (Master Musicians of Bukkake). Harris’ involvement on this album helps the Portland quartet wrap their avant-garde post-rock in celluloid and story-telling, and the overall effect is a dynamic soundtrack to curtains blowing in an empty room, cigarette smoke swirling under a lamp post on a rainy night, an empty bottle of desire hitting the floor after a passionate fight, or the bone-chilling glint of a slashing knife. This intricate score of crescendo noir works as both silent beauty and heavy terror, bandying about effluent sci-fi (“Future Primitive”), Italian craftsmanship (Bruno Nicolai’s “All the Colors of the Dark”), blushing romanticism (“Deep Politics”), prog-infused action (“Almost Grew My Hair”), and high-noon drama (“I Led Three Lives”) effortlessly, seamlessly, and extravagantly. Deep Politics doesn’t quite contain the mean zen of albums past, but it’s a creatively rich and enjoyable experience nonetheless. And remember, Grails nuts, the attraction that is Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 5 is supposed to be coming soon.

Listen to “Daughters of Bilitis” from Deep Politics!