{"id":32260,"date":"2013-10-10T06:20:32","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T11:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=32260"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:38:24","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:38:24","slug":"orchid-mouths-madness-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/orchid-mouths-madness-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchid | Mouths of Madness<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"OrchidAt this point we\u2019re well into a new wave of old school heavy rock\/stoner metal\/doom metal\/(insert your favorite term here) bands. It seems like legions of bearded heavy rockers are emerging from all corners of the globe to take up the classic early \u201870s Black Sabbath sound, but none of the European bands manages to channel Sabbath the way San Francisco\u2019s Orchid does. Their latest full-length Mouths of Madness<\/em> is probably more of an authentic Black Sabbath album than Sabbath\u2019s own comeback 13<\/em> was.<\/p>\n

Pop this disc into the CD player (or even better drop one of the limited color vinyl releases on your turntable) and it\u2019s like a time machine right back to 1971. Everything about Mouths of Madness<\/em> practically screams Master of Reality<\/em>, even the cover artwork and band name. Mark Thomas Baker\u2019s grooving riffs are completely infectious and pair perfectly with the heavy, steady rhythms Keith Nickel and Carter Kennedy lay down. For his part, vocalist Theo Mindell (wisely) opts not to imitate Ozzy Osbourne, sounding a bit more like Graveyard\u2019s Joakim Nilsson.<\/p>\n

Of course the downside to sounding so much like any other band, even one as influential as Black Sabbath, is that your own originality is harder to see. Sure the band throws some traces of Led Zeppelin and even Pink Floyd in the mix, but when you hear a song like \u201cMarching Dogs of War\u201d or especially \u201cLeaving It All Behind\u201d (which is almost a straight-up copy of \u201cAfter Forever\u201d) it\u2019s impossible to see Orchid as anything but Sabbath worship. Whether or not this is a bad thing depends entirely on what you\u2019re looking for out of the album. All nine of the songs on Mouths of Madness<\/em> could fit right in with the songs on Masters of Reality<\/em>, which says a lot about just how good these songs are.<\/p>\n

Even if they don\u2019t stray too far from the Black Sabbath sound, Orchid still plays this kind of music extremely well, and if you\u2019re into the whole heavy rock sound Mouths of Madness<\/em> is pretty much impossible to resist. This album is a must-have for fans of Witchcraft, Graveyard, Kadavar and the like, and it ought to more than satisfy any Black Sabbath fans who didn\u2019t quite get what they were hoping for from 13. It will be interesting to see in the years ahead whether Orchid can further develop their sound, or if this is the familiar groove they\u2019re going to stick with.<\/p>\n

Genre: Stoner Rock, Doom Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nTheo Mindell (v)
\nMark Thomas Baker (g)
\nKeith Nickel (b)
\nCarter Kennedy (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tMouths of Madness
\n2.\tMarching Dogs of War
\n3.\tSilent One
\n4.\tNomad
\n5.\tMountains of Steel
\n6.\tLeaving It All Behind
\n7.\tThe Loving Hand of God
\n8.\tWizard of War
\n9.\tSee You On the Other Side<\/p>\n

Label: Nuclear Blast<\/p>\n

Website: www.orchidsf.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — At this point we\u2019re well into a new wave of old school heavy rock\/stoner metal\/doom metal\/(insert your favorite term here) bands. It seems like legions of bearded […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2317,1093,339,1102],"class_list":{"0":"post-32260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-doom-metal","10":"tag-nuclear-blast","11":"tag-stoner-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}