ORCHID

Originally from the lands that cradled the sordid tonalities of death and black metal, the Swedes Opeth give a twist to the characteristic rispidity of the genre and its gloomy guttural voices, adding folk and progressive elements to conceive "Orchid", their debut album, a novel mixture of chiaroscuro that mutates smoothly from the extreme instrumental gravity to luminous acoustic landscapes.

"Orchid" shows an almost natural inclination for long developments (a characteristic that will be repeated in later works) in humid wooded scenarios and crepuscular reflective moments that Mikael Åkerfeldt describes with his guttural voice transformed at times into crystalline and peaceful. From the opening "In the Mist She Was Standing", surely the most outstanding piece of "Orchid", the atmospheric "Under the Weeping Moon" and its pinkfloydian airs delays, or "Forest of October" and "The Twilight Is My Robe", the pieces are around ten minutes or more, and resort to the constant play of Åkerfeldt and Peter Lindgren's raspy riffs combined with their arpeggiated acoustic guitars, sustained by the correct percussion of Anders Nordin and the at times unmistakable double bass drum at the speed of a fugitive pursued by the police, and the almost invisible bass of Johan de Farfalla.

And in between, to give a greater contrast to the album, the interesting piano solo "Silhouette" by Nordin, something unusual being the percussionist of the band, and the very short and acoustic "Requiem", are a breath of classical airs and prepare the onslaught of "The Apostle in Triumph", another powerful theme that refers to nature with mystical touches and that ends the first musical adventure of Opeth.

Still with a sound to be polished and rudimentary at times, but already showing their particular way of doing things, Opeth begins with "Orchid" to outline their own path.

3/3.5 stars