ORCHID – “The Mouths Of Madness” Track-By-Track Commentary

“One of the first tracks written for this album. I was struck immediately by the soaring yet totally sinister sounding vocals against that pulsing beat. A great opening number.” – Mark Thomas Baker, guitar

Track 2: Marching Dogs Of War

“We really struggled with this one to get ‘the feel’ right. It’s a simple enough song on the surface, but the subtlety of the shuffle can really be illusive sometimes. Do we swing on the light or dark side? Is it a slow enough tempo but not dragging? I’m very happy it didn’t end up on the cutting room floor since I think it is critical to the overall story the album tells.” – Keith Nickel, bass

Track 3: Silent One

“The quintessential doom song of the album. The evil sludgy intro followed by the most crushing verse that I have ever played. My favorite drum song on the album.” -Carter Kennedy, drums

Track 4: Nomad

“I’ve had the riffs for this song scattered about in my brain since we started the band. We’d jammed on different versions of it and Mark always really liked it. One day it finally just fell together. I really like the feeling of it… like a journey through different emotions I’ve gone through about spending so much time away from home but then feeling restless when I’m at home… No peace.” – Theo Mindell, vocals

Track 5: Mountains Of Steel

“A song that creeps into your soul. Very psychedelic imagery and a great heavy groove that makes it a blast to play. I’m always transformed by this song whether it’s jamming it with the band or just listening to it in my car.” – Keith Nickel, bass

Track 6: Leaving It All Behind

“Man, this song was a pretty heavy one for me. I had the music for this one for a while and felt like it sounded really kind of sad but sentimental & loving at the same time. Honestly, as funny as it sounds, I was driving and the ELTON JOHN song ‘This Is Your Song’ came on the radio. My mother has been really ill, she pretty much raised me on her own. I grew up pretty poor, just she & I really struggling to make ends meet when I was little. So this song just ended up being my way of saying thank you to her. Not very evil but I’ve never wanted to be in a band where I couldn’t say the things I wanted to or feel limited by some poser identity of being a dark band all the time.” – Theo Mindell, vocals

Track 7: Loving Hand Of God

“Started off as an ORCHID take on traditional blues like LIGHTNING HOPKINS. When I heard the finished track, the vocals gave me goosebumps and the feeling was much more of a Victorian era England than a Mississippi Delta.” – Mark Thomas Baker, guitar

Track 8: Wizard Of War

“This song just kind of happened in one night at practice. Mark had this riff floating around for years. He & I would joke around about saying it sounded like ENTOMBED or early CELTIC FROST. I always really liked it and we’d jam on it periodically. One night we worked on it and I went home and wrote a chorus and a bridge and the next practice it was just done. It was just one of those songs that kind of wrote itself. It’s just a straight ahead rocker, no frills.” – Theo Mindell, vocals

Track 9: See You On The Other Side

“I always loved the riff – and especially the middle section, which grew to a point beyond what I thought was its potential.” – Carter Kennedy, drums

ORCHID will play the DNA Lounge in San Francisco on March 8th before heading off to Europe to tour with labelmates WITCHCRAFT through April & May.

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