Orchid-Through the devil's doorway

the Church Within
2009



San Francisco's Orchid have released a debut that was easy for me to identify what was going on, but it was far tougher for me to gather my thoughts together about it. It took about five seconds of "Into the sun" for me to realize that this band obviously bow before the altar of Black Sabbath and embrace that sound and channel it into the four tracks here. To pin it down further I would say these songs are most like Volume. 4 due to the heaviness level. Beyond just the direct influence to the creators of doom Orchid also aim to achieve an authentic 1970's sound. In addition to Sabbath they have obviously enjoyed a diet that included the likes of Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Cream and others. It's no doubt that these guys loved that sound from 35-40 years ago so much that they have made it their focus with fuzzed out riffs crackling through at a pace similar to a snail pulling a brick. The foundation of their focus is simple and you heard the style before, but there is something so genuine above their approach that it's to buy into what they cranking out. "Son of Misery" was probably the track I enjoyed most of the four and it's the one where they spread their wings a little. They tried to expand the sound as they really concentrated on getting beyond just a simple riff. Orchid's disc isn't going to break a lot of barriers nor are they trying to. It's really just early sounding metal with splashes of classic rock binding the whole thing together. This was familiar in style, but easy to enjoy.