Orchid are bringing the doom rock in a big way with The Mouths of Madness, and under no circumstances should you be missing out on this. It's modern enough to be considered in that "modern retro" vein of heavy metal revival, but if this were released in the late 70's, nobody would have thought a time traveller dropped it off.
The first thing that's instantly noticeable about The Mouths of Madness is that it's so much different than Orchid's 2011 effort Capricorn. Where Capricorn tried to get all fuzzy and almost psychedelic on you with Iommi-flavored riffs and overall sludginess, The Mouths of Madness takes a much cleaner approach to their sound and drives home the point that they're not fucking around with this release. All the modern heavy metal hallmarks are definitely there: low-key distorted guitars, big roomy drums, clanky finger-picked bass, and big ass blues vocals, but at the same time there's a modern sheen underneath all that which simply blows Capricorn out of the water.
While the riffs and everything on the record sound great, Theo Mindell really drives it home with his powerful voice and singable lyrics. His delivery makes you feel like he's psyched about what he's singing and pretty much demands that you get just as pumped as he is. If there's a comparison to be drawn about Mindell, it's simply that Ozzy and Russell Allen of Symphony X magically spawned a child with pipes from the heavens.
It's easy to love The Mouths of Madness. The record rocks you from start to finish and punches hard without leaving any gaping holes in the songwriting. When it's all said and done, though, you'll find yourself looking at the track list and trying to remember which songs were which, and that's where this record falls short of living up to it's full potential. As far as "twists" in the songwriting, there's usually two options: slow down or go into triplets. Not that there are too many more places to go, but with songs drawn out as long as they are at points, it couldn't have hurt to cut some things here or there. It's a "doom" record, but genre isn't an excuse to dive halfheartedly into something boring.
The Mouths of Madness is a good record if you're looking for that kind of music, and it's great background music for doing whatever else. Hell, the title track and "Wizards of War" are pretty regularly being blasted from my car's stereo, but at the end of the day The Mouths of Madness is a record with some great songs and moments, but as a record it's just pretty good.
6/10
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