Orchid – Chaos Is Me (1999)

Orchid

There probably couldn’t have been a better name for Orchid’s 1999 debut album than Chaos Is Me. These days, when someone calls a screamo band “chaotic,” they’re usually saying “they sound at least a little like Orchid.” Chaos Is Me is consistently referenced as a genre-defining album, and for good reason. It’s a pure assault on the eardrums; a dense, claustrophobia-inducing blend of harshly shrieked vocals, discordant riffs, and grindy rhythms (it makes sense that this is a band who released splits with both Jeromes Dream and grind greats Pig Destroyer, and made this record with producer Kurt Ballou of metalpunk icons Converge). This 19-minute album only briefly lets up on the intensity, and even the few quieter moments sound like a ticking time bomb. The rest of it sounds like a prolonged explosion.