Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Metal Crypt | 4.75/5 |
| Metal Judgement | |
| Metal Library | 5 |
| Metallized | 85 |
| Rocknworld | 8.0 |
| Sea of Tranquility | |
After finishing the layout, the band sent the album to England. However, a problem arose: the lyric pages were the opposite to what Opeth had expected. The colours had been reversed, and the CD itself was blue instead of black. The band again expressed regret for this, but fans stated they liked how the colours looked.
Orchid was released on May 15, 1995 in Europe by Candlelight Records on CD, and on cassette by Mystic Production. It was released on June 24, 1997 in the United States by Century Black. It was reissued in 2000 in Europe by Candlelight and in the United States by Century Media, with one bonus track, "Into the Frost of Winter". In the same year, it was released as a double-LP vinyl edition on Displeased Records, limited to 1000 copies. A special edition was released by Candlelight in 2003.
Critical reaction to the album was mostly positive. Critic Matt Smith of Maelstrom wrote that it is one of best Opeth albums, and "it set the tone for the albums to come." Christian Renner of Metal Crypt, stated "One of the main things that struck me while listening to this album is the fact that I can't believe this is a debut album considering the depth and emotion displayed throughout every song on this disc. It just goes to show the massive amount of ability this band has." However, before Orchid's release, according to Åkerfeldt:
| “ | Most people, at least in the Swedish scene, were recording at Unisound, and Opeth, before the album came out, was considered a joke band. No one expected anything from us. The rumor wasn't great about us. Some of the early shows we did were awful and David Isberg, our singer who formed that band, wasn't liked too much. We didn't have a good vibe going about the band. We didn't have any friends in the scene. I didn't know anyone. We were total outsiders. | ” |
| — Mikael Åkerfeldt |
John Serba of Allmusic said that Orchid was "quite an audacious release, a far-beyond-epic prog/death monstrosity exuding equal parts beauty and brutality -- an album so brilliant, so navel-gazingly pretentious that, in retrospect, Opeth's future greatness was a foregone conclusion." John Chedsey of Satan Stole My Teddybear stated that the album is "one of the more stunning and devastatingly powerful debuts of any metal band in any genre." Jim Raggi of Lamentations of the Flame Princess wrote that "perhaps the most easily recognizable voice in all of extreme metal, Mikael Åkerfeldt really does make some noise in his debut. I can't think of very many vocalists in 1994 (when the album was recorded) who used both clean and growled vocals freely. I'm definitely not going to go so far as to say he was the first (Dan Swanö did beat him on that at least!) but all those years ago, Åkerfeldt did set the standard for what the extreme progressive music vocalist should sound like". He added, "The fact is this album is a groundbreaking milestone in heavy metal for the progressive elements that are thrown into the more metallic music and the extreme vocals" and the sound of the album is "completely unique". In Sea of Tranquility, Pete Pardo wrote, "Opeth journeyed into the Unisound studio with Dan Swanö to record what would be the first album in a line of classic progressive death metal albums". Rocknworld mentions that "Opeth had created a beast that was needed in a scene prone to stagnation, and continued to keep metal as a vanguard for daring originality". Chris Dick of Decibel stated in Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces that:
| “ | Death metal, after its formative stages, wasn't averse to experimentation or the influence of other genres, but it never sounded as powerful, fearless or skilled as on Orchid... Opeth's debut was, to quote frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt in 1993, a masterful hybrid of 'Wishbone Ash, Black Sabbath and Bathory.'... It was inviting, abrasive and full of subtlety. Despite Symbolic, Slaughter of the Soul, Domination, The Gallery and Storm of the Light's Bane blowing minds in 1995, it was Opeth's Orchid that changed death metal forever. | ” |
| — Chris Dick, Decibel |
Not all critics were positive, however. The French magazine Metallian said the album was "boring and uneventful" and gave it 1/10. Johan DeFarfalla stated that "from the death metal scene, they thought, 'Wow! This is cool!' From the educated musicians I knew, they said, 'This sucks. The sound is bad. You should re-record this.' But I think people really liked it, apart from the sound."
Read more about this topic: Orchid (album)
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