By John Sturm
Hi! Were you one of those people who rushed out to buy the latest “Black Sabbath” album on the day of its release? Were you one of those people that 2 hours later had a nice new shiny coaster to place your glass on (the glass that you used to catch your tears in? If so then come on in, pull up a chair and allow me to sooth your pain with some truly brilliant tunes in a similar vein. (If you liked 13 you’re more than welcome to stay too. But I’ve put the sharp objects out of your reach. I know how tetchy you fans can get when someone’s a little bit dismissive of your band.)
Lazy comparisons aside, San Francisco’s Orchid have released an album that sounds like it was made in 1974. Sonically, The Mouths Of Madness is very much 2013 but musically it harks back to the period of time when blues morphed into harder more aggressive rock and as Sabbath were big proponents of that sound and era it’s easy to see why their name crops up in reviews for this album. Whilst not as “metal” in sound as Sabbath (there’s a lot of tipping the hat to early Zeppeling and Purple here), Orchid could have easily been contemporaries.
The album begins with the title track that rattles along at a fair clip. No church bell tolling and atonal wailing here. Vocalist Theo Mindell firmly establishing himself on the track with notes reaching into the upper stratosphere whilst also. There’s also some shade and light here as the verse features a breakdown from riffing to notes and the drums become more tribal and rumbling. Keith Nickel’s bass has that lovely flappy Geezer sound... arghh another Sabbath reference. Sorry chaps. Let’s move on.
One thing that this album has that *ahem* that other band lacks is a sense of joy. A sense of uplifting. ‘Leaving It All Behind’ starts with a wonderfully melodic and upbeat riff that then segues into something that sound reminiscent of Creedence Clearwater Revival. And that is a great thing! It’s not all doom and gloom and dour looks. This is music to nod your head to, sure. But it’s also music for swilling back a cold beer to. Elsewhere on the album we have ‘Silent One’ which ensnares you with its twisty riff and stop start guitars. ‘Wizard Of War’ is the tune to play whilst speeding (within the speed limit obviously.....) along a road at night. ‘Nomad’ provides swaggers and sways like my Uncle Neville after too much brandy at Christmas before whacking a thick riff across your face (which my Uncle Neville most certainly never does).
Lazy comparisons aside (but not boring repetitions....) this is a superb debut album. If you like your music to reflect when music was actually good and played by real humans wearing flares then this is for you. To be honest, if you have ears this is for you. It’s stellar.
