ORCHID

Orchid ? 1995 (2.8/5) 10 ? Best Song: The Apostle In Triumph Opeth, Sweden's progressive death metal darlings weren't always the way you might know them as. In the beginning, they played a mean metal, without any letup, following suit with the aggression and growling of your ordinary Gothenburg melodeath group. The one thing they possessed this early in the game that beats the pants off a host of pathetic jokesters like At te Gates is chops ? we aren't talking about blindly jarring, monotonous riffs where a man idiotically roars in an incomprehensible maelstrom of garbage, Opeth actually know how to play, and right from the beginning, as silly as it might be implemented at this stage, they do attempt diversify themselves. I suppose what I'm saying is that a man like Mikael Akterfeldt has a musical history involving more than old Venom 8-tracks. Even if 'In Mist She Was Standing' seems to want no more than to bludgeon you over the skull for the first five minutes of its more than 14 minute running time, once you get past that the song shifts into a calm, autumnal interlude. It isn't amazing ? it's pretty mundane, but it does set the band a step or two above Dark Tranquility. 'Silhouette' is a gothic piano dirge that doesn't go anywhere. It's pretty enough, but fairly aimless. To be honest, I like Orchid. The death metal segments are amateurish messes, and the subdued interludes don't hit my ears fluidly, but god damn it, they're trying to do something different, and you don't just come out with this much balls and still expect to retain your dignity ? they were taking a kind of risk. Edge of Sanity would only do this type of thing a year later, with the guidance of Mikael, anyway. Take it as a raw debut ? the band learning their ropes. They'd eventually shed their heavy 1990's metal influences.