Opeth – Orchid
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Candlelight Records
Opeth’s first album, originally released in 1994, is a monumental recording.
Technically, Opeth are concidered death or melodic death, but this album has so many sections of music and so many lyrics that are so black metal, that I call it a blackened death album. Even vocally, Mikael’s performances are pretty blackened.
Instrumentally, it’s death metal riffing, but without tons of distortion. An almost clean, overdriven sound with awesome bass tone and drums. It’s a sound that I’ve never heard another band successfully duplicate. It’s a sound that defines a genre, and that genre is Opeth.
This re-release also includes a bonus track, the rehearsal tape song “Into the Frost of Winter”, which had parts from it cannibalized for the song “Advent”, the opener of the second album. It’s an amazing look into the Opeth that existed in 1992.
Overall, Orchid nets itself an 8 out of 10. It’s a bloody brilliant chunk of metal that to this day can stand next to tons of other records and still shine brightly.