Artist: Orange Goblin 
   Title:  Healing Through Fire
   Label: Sanctuary Records

'Healing Through Fire' is the fifth release from Stoner Metallers Orange Goblin and is the much anticipated follow up the their 2004 ‘Thieving From The House Of God’ album.

Since the departure of rhythm guitarist Pete O’Malley back in 2002, the band have remained a four piece and hardened their sound, with Joe Hoare leading the way with his relentless guitar licks and this is in abundance on this new opus which takes it's underlying theme from the Great Fire of London and the Great Plague.

Things get underway in true Goblin style with ‘The Ballad Of Solomon Eagle’ with the bands now infamous grind driven sound with vocalist Ben Ward sounding as gruff as ever.  But it’s the guitars of Hoare that really shine through, not only on this track but throughout the entire album, with the heady bass and drums of Martin Millard and Chris Turner coming along for the ride.

The same pounding stoner sound is carried on into the aptly named ‘Vagrant Stomp’ before things are picked up stoner style with my favourite off the album ‘The Ale House Braves’ with its thumping rhythms, Wards hard edged vocals and once again Hoare’s streaming guitars sounding very early Fast Eddie Clarke-ish.

The band keep the momentum going with the more down trodden stoner metal that made the band so infamous with the dark ‘Cities of Frost’ which depicts the sorrow of ... "a generation wiped out in one day", and the more up tempo feel of ‘Hot Knives And Open Sores’.

Once again it’s the guitars of Hoare that shine once more with almost Classic Rock feel of ‘Hounds Ditch’, then the album takes on a whole new twist as the acoustic medieval feel of the instrumental ‘Mortlake (Dead Water)’, which takes you quite by surprise, but the surprise is short lived as it's back to the more familiar Stoner tones with ‘They Come Back (Harvest of Skulls).  Any song that has the lyrics ... "Rots! Rise! They come back to take the living!" ... is sure to fire up the imaginations of those younger fans the band tend to attract.

The album closes with another surprise package here as ‘Beginners Guide To Suicide’ with its slide guitars and heady bass and altogether Southern feel, which rounds of an album worthy of the Orange Goblin name.  My only criticism is the production on the album, which at times could bring the vocals a bit more into the mix, but apart from that not bad at all.

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