Heretic - Single

Although Marin, Calif., has always been home to period-correct retro-rockers, none have come close to capturing the early Black Sabbath sound and look like Orchid. The 2012 Heretic EP is Orchid’s first recording for Nuclear Blast. It opens with a sampled soundbite from a '60s occult movie before the unmistakable ear-bludgeoning distortion of an Orange amplifier cranks out Tony Iommi–inspired riffs courtesy of guitarist Mark Baker. And even when frontman Theo Mindell sings “Oh yeah!” and “Alright!” off-mic, he can’t help but channel early-'70s Ozzy. The band counters such nods to doom-metal pioneers with original melodies and other non-Sabbath instrumentation, like a grinding Hammond B-3 organ. “Falling Away” is a giant step in the band’s own interpretation of proto-metal. It starts with Mindell crooning foreboding lyrics over acoustic fingerpicking that segues between folk and Spanish guitar before detonating into a power-sludge ending. It’s hard to tell if “Saviours of the Blind” is a jab at the Oakland metal band Saviours, but either way the song rocks like a seven-and-a-half-minute reinvention of “Into the Void."