By Avinash Mittur
The Bay Area seems to just about have it all when it comes to quality modern heavy metal. Strangely enough though, with the exception of San Jose’s Sleep, classic stoner rock and doom metal seems to have evaded the local scenes. Luckily for us that can’t get enough of the Almighty Riff though, Orchid from San Francisco have been able to nicely fill that gap in recent years. With barely any promotion and very rare live performances, Orchid have been one of the Bay Area’s best kept secrets until now. That’s truly a shame, because I’ll be damned if Orchid aren’t one of the most likable and downright cool acts coming out of the weird little town of San Francisco right now. In the two years since their first full length, Capricorn, Orchid have been rapidly gaining a following, thanks to a pair of killer EPs released in the last year and a small number of near-legendary shows at home. The band’s new record, The Mouths of Madness, is better than any fan could have hoped for though. It’s a loving tribute to the classic heavy music of old and it’s one of the best rock and roll albums anyone will hear all summer.
Though Orchid began with a sound jacked straight from Black Sabbath, their music has evolved into something wholly unique and special. Where Iommi drove his songs with his ironclad riffs, Orchid focus much more on exploring the ‘vibe’ that Sabbath nailed so well on Paranoid and Master of Reality. Guitarist Mark Thomas Baker doesn’t beat the listener over the head with a thick and sludgy tone, instead letting his sound and playing ride alongside Keith Nickel’s bass. The opening title track is a perfect example of this, with a humble and unassuming riff leading the charge, and Theo Mindell’s psychotic melodies weaving about Baker’s wah-laced lines and Carter Kennedy’s thumping toms. Mindell doesn’t sound a lot like Ozzy at all, but more than any other doom metal vocalist, he channels the haunting and off-kilter feeling heard in those classic releases frighteningly well. It’s impossible not to feel a shiver down your spine during the bridge of ‘Mountains of Steel’, where Mindell’s already twisted vocals take on a whole new level of creepy. Timeless might seem like an interesting word to describe the production, but there isn’t a better one to use. Engineer Will Storkson managed to dial in a sound and mix that lacks the ugly dirt and grime of the tape era, but thankfully avoids the razor-sharp digital crispness that too often dates modern metal albums. Simply put, The Mouths of Madness sounds utterly perfect and more significantly, it sounds like it belongs to no era of music. It would have been considered a great sounding record forty years ago, it sounds fantastic now, and you can bet that kids will want to blast this album loud in 2053.
The Mouths of Madness peaks right away with the pumping powerhouse that is the title track- this song alone is one of the best heavy rock songs released this year, and is an outstanding achievement for the band. The rest of the album manages to stand tall though, with Mindell going for his catchiest vocal performance yet on ‘Nomad’, and even if the second half of the song jacks the main riff from Deep Purple’s ‘Flight of the Rat’, it’s easy to ignore when the track as a whole is so damn infectious. No one in Orchid is a showoff, but when the band locks in on the longer numbers the results are stunning. You get to hear the guys stretch out on ‘Silent One’, while the expansive , heat-drenched atmosphere these musicians create on ‘Leaving It All Behind’ is nothing short of awesome, with Mindell, Baker and Nickel ending the track with a riveting fade-out jam. Oddly enough, the low point of The Mouths of Madness is the track that owes the most to Iommi, ’Wizard of War’. The tight, up-tempo chugging lifted from ‘Symptom of the Universe’ breaks the free-flowing, viscous vibe created by the rest of the songs, and its brevity leaves no room for Orchid to do what they do best- nail a groove and flex their instrumental muscle. Luckily, the closing track ‘See You on the Other Side’ sees Orchid at the height of their powers with Kennedy punctuating the verses with dramatic snare fills, Mindell wailing his ass off and Baker providing plenty of killer melodies and some beautiful acoustic playing for the mid-section. Black Sabbath often fell under the weight of their own ambition when it came to their long tracks- Orchid are at their best when they let the time fly.
The Mouths of Madness is a huge step up from Capricorn, a fine album in its own right. Where the prior album saw a band that already knew the sound they wanted to achieve, this record sees them actually attaining it. Orchid’s strengths and weaknesses are a bit different than the riff lord’s; Orchid excel when they let the jam take over and naturally ebb and flow, whereas Iommi ruled his domain when he bludgeoned his subjects with riffs that were heavier than time itself. Different strengths. Different approaches. Different bands. Yes, there are small nods to Sabbath here and there on The Mouths of Madness (trying to find them all is actually kind of fun) but these songs carry an identity all their own, and anyone who bails on Orchid because of some similarity to the architects of heavy metal music are missing out big time. Fans of evocative, immersive heavy rock music are bound to find something to love in The Mouths of Madness– the curious and the loyal will be rewarded with some of the best rock music they’ll hear all summer.
Rating: 9/10
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Dates:
April 26th 2013 (Europe)
April 29th 2013 (UK)
May 14th 2013 (US)
Track Listing:
1. Mouths of Madness
2. Marching Dogs of War
3. Silent One
4. Nomad
5. Mountains of Steel
6. Leaving It All Behind
7. Loving Hand of God
8. Wizard of War
9. See You on the Other Side
Links:
facebook.com/orchidsf
twitter.com/Orchid_SF
orchid.bandcamp.com
youtube.com/OrchidSF