Coming on in a welter of heavily overdriven ascending riffage, Montreal’s ORCHAD’s (pronounced ‘Orchid’, obviously, and consisting of vocalist Julian Hannas and lead guitarist Justyn Vynn) new single ‘Critically Ashamed’ is a screamer of an alt-rock anthem with a deeply, bone-movingly danceable groove underlying the hard-rocking guitar sound. There’s an old-school metal-ness to the basal riff, something thrashy and San-Fran sounding lurking under the modern rock tone, driving and energetic before dropping down to a dense flanged arpeggio, Hannas’ super-strong vocal carrying the verse between the powerchord frenzy of the earworm chorus.
Vynn shreds and divebombs on the solo without ever sounding contrived or dated, with a bluesiness that belies his sixteenth-note runs and twiddly licks, before the singalong ‘woah oh oh oh’ playout groove. Overall ORCHAD manage to mix modern pop sensibilities and catchiness with an undeniably rock sound and a little bit of hip hop funk; on the basis of this, ORCHAD have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about, critically or otherwise.
Check out the stunning (and very pink) video for ‘Critically Ashamed’ on YouTube. Follow ORCHAD on Facebook and Instagram.
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