It's entirely listenable, and even depending who you talk to, it's good and serves the music and atmosphere well. All that said, the production is nowhere near as poor as is the trope for many metal debuts. The sound these albums share, that separate them from the rest of Opeth's work, is defined by a few things: There are no self-contained tracks (interludes don't count) that aren't incredibly long even for Opeth's standards, prevalent dual-harmonic guitar leads, free-reign noodly counterpoint bass lines, higher-range raspier harsh vocals, and perhaps most importantly, a distinct production job characterized by thinness, poorer recording quality, and a less chunky guitar tone.

Their next album, My Arms Your Hearse, introduced a marked stylistic shift that the band never strayed from completely until they went the route of prog rock in 2011. The reason I call these sister albums is that they sound incredibly alike in multiple ways, and not just that, they both share a sound that is isolated among Opeth's discography. Orchid can and should be seen as a sister-album to 1996's Morningrise, an album that is also criminally underappreciated, but at the very least gets a massive amount more attention than Orchid. This rant is finished I will now go on to discuss the album itself. The fact that the majority of people totally overlook it without even a listen is a travesty that I want to help remedy right now, even if by a fraction. I want to draw attention to this album, not because it's unappreciated, but because it's underappreciated. Why would I choose to feature such a well-known band's album? And out of all that band's albums, why would I choose their rarely-discussed debut?īecause of just that-the fact that few people speak about this album, that it virtually never comes up in recommendation threads or discussions, and that in our Band's Best poll it ranked at the bare fucking bottom. You can expect both albums that lurk in the depths of obscurity and albums that are hailed classics, as well as everything in between.Ĭlick here for a list of all past showcases.ĭescriptors: raw, epic, melodic, melancholic The albums are all moderator-choices and the order of said albums has been randomized so that there is no discernible pattern. Each post we'll pick a new prog metal (or prog metal-related) album to showcase for the sake of an open, comprehensive subreddit discussion. Welcome to part twenty-five of r/progmetal's Album Showcase series.

Orchid album apps