Orchid know how to make an entrance: The riff and the whole song of the opening, title track The Mouths Of Madness is just brain rattling perfection. It just bypasses all that tedious ‘getting to know you’ stuff and lodges straight in your long term mental juke box. In short it is fantastic.
Now bear that above note in mind because it just adds to the fact that if you met me and we ended up in conversation about US psyche doomheads Orchid you’d probably never guess I had a problem with them. It’s a problem I had with their debut Capricorn: I took a lot longer to get into that than made any sense to me. Way longer. I say that because if I’ve just woken you from that snooze under a bit of granite, Orchid are about the catchiest, grooviest, guitar driven of the seventies styled doom bands doing the rounds. Early Sabbath with their party-party head on. So why the problem? Because actually there’s more going on than that storefront riff and if you don’t pay attention you can get all partied out too quickly, I reckon. The casual listener will follow that opening track and let Marching Dogs Of War follow on with its bump and rumble but will they actually heart the lovely harmonica? What about the gentle, deft guitar work on Nomad just before it gathers its speed or the gorgeous lead break it spins out? The piano that fits in so well with the tidal flow guitar of Mountains Of Steel? The closing exultation of See You On The Other Side? Maybe I worry too much (actually, fuck that, I have UK international caps at worrying) but sometimes Orchid are just so good at this window display “seventies inspired” sound that people stand, watch for a while and then move on saying something glib like “well, Sabbath aren’t doing it any more”, tell their mates “yeah, Orchid are pretty good” and miss all the depth to their sound and hence the reason you should be listening to them. Jeez, when the blues riff on Leaving It All Behind just drops a gear and like a good v-twin engine the grunt just lets it take off….
No they ain’t perfect: Loving Hand Of God fails to move me I’m afraid and Wizard Of War, a song I am now overly familiar with is a bit too ‘Sabbath Obvious’ I have finally decided. Also leaving aside that some people take against the vocals for no damned good reason (they are excellent, make no mistake on that), Orchid have this weird counter intuitive sound where if you let their hook line per song grab you it takes forever to disgorge it and actually hear the song. And sometimes the hook sounds a little too much like the next one that comes along, even if the song doesn’t sound like it at all. Look it will make sense if you sit down and listen to the album.
It’s also an oddity that whilst bands aren’t really in competition, people always ask “how does it measure up to…” and then drop some utterly inappropriate name. Worse when they are seen as part of a movement of any kind. So how does it compare to the two best ever albums recently dropped by Graveyard and Witchcraft? Who cares. With their second full length, Orchid have built on Capricorn’s excellent-but-still-not-fully-developed sound and shown they have stepped forward and fully justified the interest of Nuclear Blast with a joyous blend of bounce, thump and grunt. Better songs, better album, better band. Room for improvement? Of course. Tools for the job? The finest, and now perfectly honed. Compares favourably to…? Oh fuck off and buy this already: You won’t hear a groovier, more bouncing ball of doom and that’s all you need to know.
See you on the other side.
(8.5/10 Gizmo)
23/04/2013 at 9:13 am
Bodes well for my pre-order and the shows in May; I’m just hoping the same sound will come through live.
23/04/2013 at 10:57 am
Loving Hand Of God is probably my favourite track on the album. Its definitely a ‘grower’ and the lyrics are incredible.