Orchid

The way the band got their contract is unusual: they never made a demo for the purpose. Lee Barrett, who had founded Candlelight Records, heard a rehearsal tape and signed them off that. The album was recorded in March 1994 at the old Unisound Studio in Finspång. The band moved there from Stockholm and stayed in a flat Dan Swanö had arranged for them; the studio itself was in the cellar of a small house in the middle of a field. Swanö and the band produced and mixed it, with Swanö also engineering. Johan DeFarfalla was called in to play session bass and ended up joining as a full member. Mikael Åkerfeldt has said they were completely ready before they went in: they had been rehearsing six or seven times a week, and had practised in pitch darkness so they could play the songs without looking. The writing that moves between death metal roaring and quiet acoustic passages several times inside one song is already fully formed here. The American release followed on 24 June 1997 through Century Black. The running order here is the original's as printed.