Opeth - Orchid

Opeth - Orchid (1995)

It certainly is bizarre to go back through Opeth's catalogue - now that it stretches 2 and half decades. Giving Orchid a spin requires one to remove themselves from all the proceeding albums, and attempt to listen to it as the debut it was - an impossible task.

Orchid is definitely Opeth's "most metal" album in that it follows all the tropes present in metal in 1995. That being said, it is hugely ambitious for its time period - competing with forward-thinking Swedes Edge of Sanity and certainly At the Gates.

But the emphasis on the "metal" thing comes from even the softer passages - rooted firmly in what was established as acceptable "soft" metal passages (read: classical guitar style finger-picking). Some circles refer to Orchid as a Blackened-Death metal record, and there are a few reasons for this connection. First-and-foremost, the song titles and cover art: hardly typical of the Swedish Death Metal scene, with titles almost plagiarizing their Norwegian counterparts: "Under the Weeping Moon," The Twilight is my Robe…" the band has a dark theme going on here. The other piece is the decidedly melancholic tone of the dual guitar harmonies which are really the bands go-to in terms of the heavier passages - immediately demonstrated on both "In the Mist She Was Standing," and the dark brooding opening three or so minutes of "Forest of October." The third black metal quality is a rather thin production with heavy use of reverb. Some of this was style choice, the other, was definitely budget limitations.

No matter what black metal elements are present here, there is no doubt in my mind that Opeth were a Swedish death metal band, growing up worshiping local heroes like Entombed, Unleashed, and Dismember. They clearly entered the scene with intentions of stretching the  genre as far as it would go - something no one can argue they eventually did.

But that brings us to Orchid. So it took over 10 straight listens to wash most of the modern Opeth outta my ears so that I could give this sucker a clean listen. Like most overly-ambitious progressive bands (metal or otherwise), in their early years they have all the key elements except one. They have musicianship, they have talent, and they have the ability to come up with amazing riffs and sequences. The lacking element is composition, and while Orchid does not completely lack in this department, it does fall into that feeling of a big collection of good ideas rather than a cohesive song at times. Most of the uninitiated will admit telling the songs apart is difficult, mainly because you have only 7 tracks. Take the ambitious piano instrumental "Silhouette" and the short interlude "Requiem" out of the mix, then you are left with 5 songs that range from 10 to 14 minutes and each one of them goes through a large number of shifts in tone, tempo, and direction. It also doesn't help that many of the songs are through-composed (meaning they do not return to previously played sections - they play it once and move on). From a writer's perspective - that's a giant undertaking, to a listener, it can be overwhelming.

This means that Orchid is best enjoyed as a start-to-finish listen, taking in all the elements as one goes and enjoying the evolutions. Through my repeated listens, it grew on me more and more. My nitpicks are the production (sometimes the clean guitar tone carries a punchier low-end than the distortion which means the switch does not accomplish what it should). The other would be Anders Nordin's obvious limitations (with the exception of his incredible piano playing). I'm not a drummer myself, but it is obvious they asked a lot of him, and he delivers most of it rather timidly and unconvincingly. It is competent enough I suppose, but he is clearly the band's weakest link here. The double bass seems to be the choice when he can't think of anything else and the creativity lacks severely.

Akerfeldt had not yet mastered his vocals yet either. The grunt is sufficient, but man-oh-man did he ever get better at that - part of the lacking could be the production. His clean vocals are the real sore point here - they are shaky, unconfident, and rather bland. This is where it is almost impossible to erase the memory of how good they are now.

It is difficult to pick out a favorite track because, as mentioned above - they are all so long and contain so many transitions. So I will go with "Under the Weeping Moon" as it contains of one the coolest parts - an eerie repeat triplet pattern on clean guitar underneath drum hits and feedback that lulls the listener to sleep right before it explodes again into the death metal proper.

Opeth's debut is damn fine. I believe it will appeal to most fans of 90's Swedish DM, and I think most Opeth die-hards still defend it (though I doubt the majority of their modern fan base have even broken it out of its plastic). If it has been a while for you (as it was for me), give it a spin, you'll dig it again.

Death Metal Tuesday - The End Complete

Obituary's third album, The End Complete is certain to divide camps among old school Obituary fans. It is arguably their most commercially successful release, their most instantly accessible, and the first album to feature full lyrics for each song. After the underground success of Cause of Death, Obituary returned with original guitarist Allen West replacing Cause's James Murphy at the lead guitar. By 1992, the band had firmly established themselves as one of Florida's most seminal among Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Death. They had also managed to carve a fairly distinct sound for themselves which presents them as instantly recognizable among their peers thanks to two factors: the guitars with tone knobs turned all the way to bass and John Tardy's ridiculously over-the-top voice which sounds like he's vomiting each syllable.

The other key component was Obituary's lack of traditional song structure which changes drastically onThe End Complete. At the very opening notes of "I'm in Pain," it is clear that Obituary has refined to verse-chorus-verse song structure along with straightforward and somewhat boring lyrical content. Tardy's voice is also somewhat affected by being preoccupied with enunciation rather than just making ghoulish noises. Thus the polarizing factor is this: do you think the refinement of song structure and the addition of conventional lyrics help or hurt the band?

"I'm in Pain" will likely do little to sway anyone either way, but "Back to One" is decidedly savage and full of new found energy. And though Obituary could hardly be placed among the fastest of OSDM bands, they are certainly one of the most adept at hanging a slow groove, which they obviously became acutely aware of on this album. "Back to One" starts with a punk-like charge which eventually settles into a 6/8 chug that truly highlights what is so great about this band. They also have a tendency to just sit back and jam on a riff, without vocals or leads, until the song comes to its natural end - few other OSDM acts were so patient in their approach. Halting breakdowns and tempo changes throughout show that Obituary had a firm grasp on their appeal. The riffs are among some of the best in the bands catalogue here and Allen West's leads easily outdo anything he did on Slowly We Rot. John Tardy also delivers, as one expects, with doubled up vocals and savage force. Yes the actual lyrics do change his dynamic, but the jarring change lets up after the opening track.

Towards the latter half of The End Complete, Obituary really seem to find their niche. After the somewhat forgettable "In the End of Life," "Sickness" announces the albums second side which all but erases side one. Atypical for most releases, the best tracks on here lie towards the end. The absolutely groovy "Killing Time" may just be one of the band's tracks that they ever wrote. This along with the album's single and title track are the most convincing moments of this release.

The production is adequate, though a paper-thin and overly compressed snare plagues Donald Tardy's machine-like performance. That guitar sound may also be wearing a little thin, as the heightened production values elsewhere really show how weak a sound it truly is. 

Production flaws aside though, The End Complete made a strong statement for Obituary's place in OSDM history. This is what a third album truly should be: a combination of the rawness of #1 and the compromises of #2 which creates a logical step forward in musical maturity and artistic progression. The follow up to this would be a rather hard pill to swallow, so this may just be the band's true peak as a death metal giant. Being one of the founding fathers of death metal, it's good to see the boys are back to writing traditional DM, some 20 years after this release... Man, that makes me feel old! 4.5 out of 5.

Death Metal Tuesday - Khaos Legions

Guitar player Michael Amott was a key factor in Carcass' morphing from Goregrind to melodic death metal. After his departure from that band, he formed Arch Enemy in 1995, playing a similar sounding breed of melodeath  that easily compares to the early In Flames and Dark Traquillity stuff. Along 2000, the band acquired a female singer named Angela Gossow, and suddenly they got a great deal of attention. The reason for this, is Angela sounds plenty brutal - her gender difference nearly undetectable by the uninitiated. My beef has always been that her vocals sound overly processed - like they doctored them up to sound more "male" in the studio. 

Stepping away from the vocal gimmick for a second, Arch Enemy is a Swedish melodic DM band with a allegiance to the heavy aspects of the genre. While their genre mates were going softer and softer, Arch stayed allied with the thrash and DM camps. This brings us to the 2011 album, Khaos Legions. By this point, the band were a commercial success and thus in the crosshairs of critics and genre purists. I can't profess to be an expert on this subgenre, particularly post 2000, because I haven't heard enough of it. That being said, there are enough old school nods to make this particular record enjoyable. There are guitar flourishes juxtaposed with good ol' fashioned thrash riffs (similar to that mid-era Carcass stuff, come to think of it). Amott is a guitar hero in the traditional sense - playing leads that would work on a Skid Row or Motley Crüe record. The cool part is when they go from that to a ripping riff like the openning riff on Vengeance is Mine. 

I will never like Angela's voice, but I think the band gets far too much hate / love based on her - there is certainly more going on here. This is definitely market-friendly with an aim to please the mainstream metal audience. It is instantly accessible and appealing. What I like about this over a great deal of other recent melodeath, is that Arch aren't afraid to kick the speed up. Hell, is that a blastbeat on Cult of Chaos? Yup. On the other side of the coin, there are plenty of market-friendly songs here - No Gods, No Masters, Secrets, and Through the Eyes of a Raven are all bit much for me. Again,  Khaos Legions  is mainstream metal made for the masses, but I still find it more palatable than anything In Flames has done in the past 10 years. Those lush leads alone are enough to warrant a listen or two. 3 out of 5.  

Death Metal Tuesday - Children of the Scorn

One of Finland's earliest DM exports was Funebre, who produced just this 1991 full length before vanishing into obscurity. The early Finnish stuff is pretty damn cool as it carries obvious influences from the developing Swedish scene, along with east coast American DM. 

Funebre are fairly derivative, but at the same time, they're rather ambitious. Their songs are dynamic with tons of changes and plenty of good riffs to go around. Their drummer is constantly mixing things up and keeping the songs interesting. The key deviation from the more standard Swedish offerings, is their technical prowess and progressive songwriting. Listen to the broken tempos at the onset of "Congenital Defeat," or the triplet mashing in "Shiver." The openning moments of "Waiting for Arrival" are pretty kickass too, when the guitars drop out and the drums remain alone. They jam a lot more riffs into a song than many of the other bands at the time - there is a bunch to discover in this album in other words. It demands repeated listens. 

Children of the Scorn is one of those hidden gems from DM's history that could easily go overlooked. The vocals are a tad generic and the production is a bit thin, but they satisfy every old school craving I can think of. The only caution would be the technicality probably makes this album a little but less instantly accessible than a lot of other 91 releases, but that can be a good thing too. 4 out of 5. 

 

Death Metal Tuesday - Pinnacle of Bedlam

Death Metal Tuesday:

Among the myriad of technically over-the-top DM bands available to us nowadays, it's quite reassuring that the inventors of the sub-subgenre are still dishing it effectively out. And not just effective mind you, but with a certain flair lacking among their younger peers. I speak of, in my mind, the most important New York DM band of the genre's history (yes, over Cannibal), Suffocation.

The original core of Mullin, Marchais, and Hobbs has remained, despite 2-3 year-long breaks here and there, consistently churning out the silly-named "brutal" death metal for 20+ years. Having talked about a recent Cannibal Corpse release a few weeks back, I can say with confidence that New York neighbors Suffocation's 2013 album is several times more inspired and engaging than Cannibal's output over the past ten years - and it doesn't sacrifice any brutality or genre-faithfulness. The key difference, is Suffocation has not forgotten how to write a memorable hook. It also doesn't hurt that Mullin is a much stronger vocalist than Fisher. 

This isn't a Suffocation vs. Cannibal Corpse article however, so let's discuss Pinnacle of Bedlam. The stop-and-start tempos of old-school Suffocation are still the norm, as are the atonal riffs. There is, however, an abundance of melody and fairly structured parts as well - somewhat more so than in the past. Check out that middle breakdown in the title track or the (gasp) clean intro of "Sullen Days." Hobbs and Marchais still know how to structure a proper DM tune, obscuring structure and melody below the surface to be discovered after repeated listens. The broken rhythms of "My Demise" can slip by you if you play this album in the background, without fully attending to it. They manage to make music that holds together subtly, while sounding like a complicated mess to the uninitiated. 

The formula that Suffocation solidified on "Pierced from Within" remains consistent in their music, but so many other bands took their sound to soulless technical extremes, that it is nice to hear the fathers of the genre can still blend technicality with brutality and competent song writing. I'm also just stoked that these guys still rock this hard after almost 25 years. It gives me faith in the future of the genre. 4.5 out of 5 

Death Metal Tuesday - Torture 2012

25 years and 12 albums worth of death metal is an impressive achievement in itself, but the fact that Cannibal Corpse has remained so consistently dedicated to the genre that they helped make infamous back in 90-91 is something else all together.Cannibal is basically death metal’s answer to Slayer: year-after-year, album-after-album, they never risk alienating their original fan base. I can appreciate this, as Cannibal has never made me suffer through a Illud Divinum Insanus, or a Swansong, or aInsineratehymn. At the same time, it is starting to feel rather redundant and lifeless. 

I was skeptical when Barnes parted ways in 94, but Corpsegrinder finally converted me with Bloodthirst and then Gore Obsessed in 2002. It think Owens’ departure in 2004 has left a bigger hole in the band however. How do they keep things fresh and avoid repeating themselves? Well, the simple answer is: they don't. Cannibal fans expect consistency and that is what they get. Torture is Corpse-by-the-numbers with no real surprises. Starting with 2006’s Kill, I’ve started to feel like they keep writing the same album over and over. I just find it hard to imagine anyone in the pit before their show saying “man, I hope they play tons of shit off of Torture.” And I wonder how Mazurkiewicz and Webster feel when, after a block of new stuff live, Corpsegrinder announces “Skull Full of Maggots” and the crowd acts like the headliner finally took the stage.

The technical aspects and the production of this album is solid. My true hangup with the newer Corpse stuff is the sterility - it is so precise and technically sound, that it really lacks a personality. The songs are delivered with surgical precision and are plenty rocking, there are choice riffs, brutal vocals, and plenty of change ups. “Encased in Concrete” has some life, but then there is “Scourge of Iron,” “Intestinal Crank,” or the serialism of “Rabid” that just sounds like they’re stringing notes and words together out of habit more than anything else. I

Again, the Slayer metaphor is appropriate: You can’t knock a band that has stayed true to form and vision for 20+ years. So, I’m not knocking them, I’m just bored, and I feel like it’s their boredom that’s the problem. It also might be a deeper, philosophical issue regarding aging. Seeing my adolescent heroes grow old and tired, reminds me that I’m growing old and tired. Torture isn’t awful - I can put it on and not turn it off out of frustration, but I also won’t notice anything until it stops playing and my attention is drawn to how quiet it is now. 2 out of 5.

Death Metal Tuesday - Jester Race

In Flames is a band that has received a ton of flack for their change in musical direction. Over the years, they’ve enjoyed a sizable surge in popularity which inevitably alienated their original fan base. In Flames fans are polarized into two camps - pre or post 2002’s “Reroute to Remain.” That album marks the band’s completed shift to a more commercial sound - abandoning their melodic death metal roots for a more “groove metal” approach. 

If you’ve read this blog before, it is probably no shock that I tend to fall into the first group of fans - believing their death metal sound was superior. I understand bands need to evolve, but I just can’t hang with that new stuff. The personal affront that some fans take at the band’s shift, speaks to the strength of their earlier material. 

As Swedish death metal was evolving and splintering off into other sub genres, there was talk about the emerging “Gothenburg sound” which combined the traditional elements of Swedish death metal, with the melodic guitars of more traditional metal forms (specifically, Iron Maiden). This sound would eventually become what we call “melodic death metal” nowadays, but the key bands (At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames) had no idea what they were starting - as far as they were concerned, they were just playing Swedish death metal with a twist.

In Flames’ debut, “Lunar Strain” has a rough production and menacing vocals from Michael Stanne (sounding akin to At the Gates’ Lindberg). On “Jester Race,” they clean up the sound, boost the lows, and bring in Anders Friden for vocals. All the elements that made “Strain” effective are enhanced and bolstered here, but the song writing is the real key. Opening track, “Moonshield” starts with acoustic guitars and transitions into a riff that is more harmonious and melancholic than heavy. There is immediately a noticeable departure from anything that could be construed as traditional DM, however the guitars are still crunchy as hell. There is an emphasis on catchy, traditional metal melodies that makes it sound both old school and fresh at the same time. Check out those major scales on "Goliaths Disarm Their David's," or the instrumental, "Wayfaerer." This is the most positive and upbeat sounding death metal there is - it's a crazy contrast. Of course, now this shit has been done to death, but in 96 this was revolutionary stuff. 

Every once in a while, a band gets in a spot where they are in the zone and simply can’t do anything wrong. In Flames’ 1996 sophomore effort, “Jester Race,” is one of those albums. This is on par with Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Slayer’s Reign in Blood, Death’s Symbolic, or Atheist’s Unquestionable Presence. It is re-playable to a dangerous degree (perhaps annoying others). After this one came the mighty Whoracle which is great, but not as consistent. After that… It was a somewhat rocky trip downward. 5 out of 5.