Formed in San Francisco in 2006 and named after a Black Sabbath song (a pretty, mostly acoustic interlude on the 1971 LP Master of Reality), Orchid play the kind of old-school doom metal that tempts people to call it “occult rock” or “heavy psych” instead. (As though you couldn’t tell that from the photo.) They hail from deep in the hazy realm of bell-bottoms, black-light posters, custom vans, and amplifier cabinets large enough to sleep in.
Courtesy of Nuclear Blast
The members of Orchid pose with their favorite furniture.
Orchid front man Theo Mindell has a vocal range significantly better than Ozzy’s, though they share a fondness for oddly affected pronunciation and eerie studio processing. The song’s frisky, slinky opening groove benefits considerably from the dips and fillips in Keith Nickel’s bass, whose woody, congested, midrange-heavy tone helps it stand apart from Mark Thomas Baker’s perfectly sinewy fuzz guitar. Preliminary tests suggest that this track can turn a bottle of Vitamin Water into a lava lamp from up to 30 feet away.
