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1.  Eyes Behind the Wall
2.  Capricorn
3.  Black Funeral
4.  Masters of It All
5.  Down into the Earth
6.  He Who Walks Alone
7.  Cosmonaut of Three
8.  Electric Father
9.  Albatross

Total playing time:  57:08

Release Date: February 15th, 2011
Label: The Church Within Records

Orchid - Capricorn

Reviewer: Garett

November 27, 2011

San Francisco’s Orchid is a relatively new band.  Their first full length Capricorn follows their excellent 2009 EP Through The Devil’s Doorway, and pretty much picks right up where the EP left off.  The EP was sort of a tease, four songs of some of the most inspired Black Sabbath worship that I have ever heard.  There isn’t anything new about bands being inspired by Black Sabbath, but Orchid take things much further than most.  Orchid is essentially playing the exact same style that Sabbath pioneered on their first six albums. 

Sticking this close to such an old and well known formula is a dangerous game, as the band runs the risk of coming off as a disingenuous copy-cat act.  Fortunately, this isn’t a problem for Orchid.  Capricorn is a very well crafted album that comes off as a genuinely inspired by the forefathers of the genre.  The attention to detail here is amazing, with every riff and vocal line feeling like it was used in exactly the right place  This album is all about the heavy, slow to mid-paced music that helped launch heavy metal as a legitimate genre forty years ago.  Songs like “Eyes Behind The Wall,” and “He Who Walks Alone” barrel head with a powerful mid-tempo crunch, while “Electric Father” and “Black Funeral” stand out as a more doom focused songs. 

The stark simplicity of these compositions is highlighted by the album’s warm, rich guitar tone.  Guitarist  Mark Thomas Baker should also be given credit for the fine job that he did with the  solos; they fit well with the general theme of the album, and always seem to enhance the songs in some way.  Theo Mindell’s vocals are cut from the same cloth as guys like Bobby Liebling, and of course Ozzy himself.  Mindell is not really a clone, but given the type of album that this is his nasally mid-range is likely make you think of Ozzy as soon as you hear it.  Mindell does a good job though,  he laces his vocals with just the right amount of emotion, and seems to have a knack for creating memorable vocal hooks.  “Black Funeral” and “Capricorn” are both good examples of this. 

It’s hard to find a real problem with this album, but there are a couple of points were things get a little too close to specific classic Sabbath songs for comfort.  “Down Into The Earth” is built on a main riff that is nearly identical to the one used by Sabbath on “Into The Void“, and album closer “Albatross” is a dead ringer for “Planet Caravan.”  I am sure that the band is well aware of, and probably intended the similarity, but to me, this level of borrowing goes just a hair too far.  Orchid didn’t need to borrow that iconic riff from “Into The Void,” as they demonstrate numerous times on Capricorn that they are more than capable of writing their own top-notch riffs in this style.    

Capricorn is an incredibly enjoyable album that perfectly nails the sound of a bygone era.   It isn’t original by any stretch, but when an album reaches a certain level of quality originality becomes markedly less important.  Orchid  have reached and exceeded that level for me, and if they keep it up I will have no problem plunking down my hard earned cash and buying album after album of great Black Sabbath inspired heavy metal.  Fans of Pentagram, Trouble, Witchcraft, Graveyard, and of course Black Sabbath should not sleep on this one.