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Orchid | 
 enlarge | Artist: Opeth
Label: Candlelight
Category: Music
List Price: $15.98
Buy New: $10.97
You Save: $5.01 (31%)
New (34) Used (11) from $9.00
Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 16626
Format: Extra Tracks, Original Recording Reissued
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 28
UPC: 803341121027
EAN: 8033411210272
ASIN: B00009W8N2
Release Date: June 17, 2003
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | In Mist She Was Standing | | • | Under the Weeping Moon | | • | Silhouette | | • | Forest of October | | • | The Twilight Is My Robe | | • | Requiem | | • | The Apostle in Triumph | | • | Into the Frost of Winter |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
2003 reissue of 1995 album includes the bonus track 'Into The Frost Of Winter'. The band's blending of both acoustic and electric guitar with the dual personality of Akerfeldt's vocal outpouring made Orchid immediately a genre-setting release. 8 tracks. Guitar World call them 'Metal's most brilliant band'. Candlelight.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Simply flawless May 27, 2008
This album is perfect. It's all there: killer guitar riffs, awesome lyrics, great death vocals, beautiful clean vocals, untouchable acoustic work, and even a beautiful piano solo piece.
My favorites are 'In Mist She Was Standing', 'The Twilight is my Robe', and 'Forest of October'.
The only Opeth album that I've truly been able to call anything less than spectacular is 'Ghost Reveries,' even though it's a very enjoyable album. This is the best band on the planet.
I'm rating this album 5 stars February 21, 2008
For two reasons: 1) The album is damn good, and 2) The criticism it has been receiving is not its fault.
Orchid, Opeth's debut album, is not just "historically" relevant. Some of the songs in there are as good as any they have released. "Under the Weeping Moon" and "In The Mist She Was Standing" are as epic as any of Opeth's later releases. The twin guitars, acoustic intros and interludes, etc. in Orchid are still unquestionably Opeth. The "historical" relevance may apply in another sense: in Orchid, Opeth had many of the features that define "melodic death metal" (twin guitars melodies), and by releasing this in 1994, they were ahead of the the Gothenburg three (In Flames, Dark Tranq, At The Gates) considered as pioneers of the subgenre. All this, is however, irrelevant.
As with Opeth's albums, there is no filler song, but I like the two aforementioned songs, as well as Forest of October, The Twilight Is My Robe, and The Apostle In Triumph (Akerfeldt sure comes up with the most kickass song and album names!). Orchid, though not a concept album like MAYH or Still Life, still feature many 'Opethian' themes: Death/Depression (Forest of October), Satan (Apostle in Triumph, at least as far as I can understand).
The album does suffer from less-than-optimal production, and as other reviewers have noted, the bass and guitars could use a little more processing. However, in no way does that affect the quality of the music. I disagree with the comment that Peter Lindgren's guitar needs work... show me one riff or solo to support that statement!
Please don't go by the ratings; this is as good an Opeth album as any. Get it!
 good, all things considered May 21, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you are an Opeth fan, as I am, you know what to expect from them. Honest, intense, moving, heavy stuff. You will get all of these things from their first release, "Orchid." What you will also get, unfortunately, is a dated sound and an immature approach. Is this a terrible thing? Of course not--this is Mikael Akerfeld's very first studio album, and it shows all the promise that Opeth have come to impress us with.
The vocals have an overwrought reverb on them, the overall theme of the album has an amateurish feel to it--these are things one would expect from a no-name artist of the early 90s. What we don't typically expect, though, is a harbinger of something brilliant, which you will find on this release. Opeth is one of the best, most authentic, heaviest bands you can possibly hope for in this age of immediate gratification, pop sensibility, and, generally speaking, crap. Orchid is a record that, 13 years later, is more well-thought out and crafted than 90% of what you can buy these days. Mikael is a true genius--someone who will never let you down with his ambition and hope--and this album is well worth the purchase price to anyone wishing to hear and understand the full legacy of a band as true to music and beauty as Opeth.
A hint of things to come... August 23, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Opeth's first album runs along the lines of Supertramp's first effort. Not musically, but in the sense that they were a band still sorting themselves out with a lineup that wouldn't make the final cut. As for the music itself, parts of Orchid are brilliant, but they're overshadowed by long moody stretches that seem more like exercises than constructive compositions. All of this would change in future albums of course. With subsequent growth in song writing and bringing the phenomenal rhythm section of Martin Lopez and Martin Mendez on board, Opeth found their potential and continue to explore its limits. If you're looking for a proper introduction to Opeth, Blackwater Park is the album to start with. Eventually it will lead you back here, but then you'll be able to appreciate Orchid's finer points. On a side note, the bonus track, Into the Frost of Winter, is of marginal interest and the poor recording quality detracts from the rest of the album. It would have been better off in a collection of rarities/oddities for the faithful.
Supreme August 15, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A supreme piece of music from this amazing band. Has a much more shadowy, midieval feel to it, portraying a cold, archaic, beautiful landscape. Production not as lush as subsequent releases, but perfectly suits the mood of the songs. Each song is outstanding, right down to the interludes "Silhouette" and "Requiem". My first Opeth album, a great place to start for fans of any kind of Scandinavian metal. Not a weak point to be found in the entire disc, you cannot be disappointed.
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