Angry Metal Guy<p><a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/orbit-culture-death-above-life-review/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Orbit Culture – Death Above Life Review</a></p><p><i>By Dear Hollow</i></p><p><strong>Orbit Culture</strong> is a stellar band, so 2023’s <em>Descent</em> should have been an AOTY contender. An all-killer, no-filler blend of melodeath and thrash with a dark industrial edge sounds like a hodge-podge in the worst ways, but the Swedes have made it their brand with a fluidity that has defined them from the beginning. In this way, the quartet showed their songwriting prowess, with tracks like “Black Mountain” and “The Aisle of Fire” leading the charge in the death/thrash riffage that we’ve all come to know and love. But while the claustrophobic mix provided 2020’s <em>Nija</em> a bloodthirsty darkness, it made <em>Descent</em> impenetrable in its compressed muck – sinking it from formidable to forgettable. It was too much doing too much, with no breathing room to do it. <em>Death Above Life</em> offers a bit of a different feel, although it is undeniably <strong>Orbit Culture</strong>.</p><p>Don’t get me wrong, <em>Death Above Life</em> is claustrophobic and overloud, but its pitch-black overflow feels channeled into a better outlet. At its core a melodeath band with a healthy love for thrash, <strong>Orbit Culture</strong> has long incorporated a slough of djent and metalcore influences, which <em>Death Above Life</em> utilizes for choppy start-stop riffs and climactic breakdowns – emphasized by <strong>Humanity’s Last Breath</strong> multi-instrumentalist Buster Odeholm on mixing. While it sounds like a sellout, they provide reprieve for a band amplified to the max with ideas. Alongside this, we get our usual range of thrashy early-<strong>Metallica</strong> numbers to punishing pitch-black death metal cuts. There is more range in softer ballads and punishing ragers, and it is a production improvement over <em>Descent</em>, but Karlsson’s overloud and often awkward clean vocals are suddenly a nagging issue.</p><p></p><p>As expected, the traditional thrash vibe is alive and well with <strong>Orbit Culture</strong> – even the more accessible cuts will rip you a new one. Mastermind vocalist/guitarist Niklas Karlsson continues to shift his Hetfield-inspired cleans more front and center, which adds a bit of gravelly (albeit imperfect) familiarity amid the breakneck riffs. Mostly, it’s easy to overlook, as speedy tempos and intense brutality grace the more traditional verse-chorus formats, in an early <strong>Soilwork</strong>-esque homage. This portion of <strong>Orbit Culture</strong>’s sound focuses on the range of emotion, as fury, melancholy, pride, and desperation collide in the mix of chord progressions, vocal varieties, and tasteful synth – highlighting their admiration for film composers <strong>Hans Zimmer</strong> and <strong>Howard Shore</strong>. Offer soaring chorus punctuated by djenty start-stop riffs (“Inferna,” “The Tales of War”), while more prominent clean vocals dominate thrashier and more subdued tracks alike (“Into the Waves,” “The Path I Walk”). There’s more metalcore influences as breakdowns add much-needed breathing room (“Inside the Waves,” “Hydra”) and more melodic fretboard wizardry and galloping riffs recall <strong>As I Lay Dying</strong>’s earlier material (“Nerve,” “The Storm”).<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/orbit-culture-death-above-life-review/#fn-222950-1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">1</a></p><p></p><p>The deathened intensity that pervades <em>Death Above Life</em> showcases the <b>Orbit Culture</b>’s newly capitalized fury. While many of the heavier tracks do feature clean vocals (“Hydra,” “Neural Collapse”), they are largely an afterthought to the beatdown – and are better for it. Ominous ambient textures and cinematic scope make the brutality all the more intense, with climactic solos and bloodthirsty roars focusing on establishing this misanthropy. The best tracks here are “Bloodhound” and “<em>Death Above Life</em>,” due to their absence of clean vocals and their cutthroat quality amplified by chunky <strong>Slipknot</strong>-esque rhythms, blazing tempos, and Karlsson’s most vicious performances to date. They put Karlsson’s clean vocals elsewhere to shame, existing as too blaring in the mix and damaging certain tracks with their jarring inclusions, worsened by protracted song-lengths and grating repetition (“Inside the Waves,” “Nerve,” “Neural Collapse,” “The Path I Walk”).</p><p><em>Death Above Life</em> sounds better than <em>Descent</em>, but like any good game of Whack-a-Mole, the stuffy production value is quelled only for Karlsson’s overloud cleans to pop up as an issue, amplified by the album’s fifty-three-minute runtime. The riffs are first-rate, the harsh vocals are vicious, and the songwriting encompasses a range of emotion that reflects <strong>Orbit Culture</strong>’s respect for film composers – but the increasingly upfront vocal attack wears thin very quickly. It’s a solid release from a band who has earned their reputation as one of extreme metal’s best in a distinct blend of nostalgic thrash and modern melodeath – I just know they could do so much better.</p> <p><strong>Rating:</strong> 2.5/5.0<br><strong>DR:</strong> N/A | <strong>Format Reviewed: </strong>STREAM<br><strong>Label:</strong> <a href="https://www.centurymedia.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Century Media Records</a><br><strong>Websites:</strong> <a href="http://orbitculture.bandcamp.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">orbitculture.bandcamp.com</a> | <a href="http://orbitculture.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">orbitculture.com</a> | <a href="http://facebook.com/OrbitCulture" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">facebook.com/OrbitCulture</a><br><strong>Releases Worldwide:</strong> October 3rd, 2025</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/2-5/" target="_blank">#25</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/2025/" target="_blank">#2025</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/as-i-lay-dying/" target="_blank">#AsILayDying</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/century-media-records/" target="_blank">#CenturyMediaRecords</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/death-above-life/" target="_blank">#DeathAboveLife</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/death-metal/" target="_blank">#DeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/hans-zimmer/" target="_blank">#HansZimmer</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/howard-shore/" target="_blank">#HowardShore</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/humanitys-last-breath/" target="_blank">#HumanitySLastBreath</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/industrial/" target="_blank">#Industrial</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/melodic-death-metal/" target="_blank">#MelodicDeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/metallica/" target="_blank">#Metallica</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/oct25/" target="_blank">#Oct25</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/orbit-culture/" target="_blank">#OrbitCulture</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/review/" target="_blank">#Review</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/reviews/" target="_blank">#Reviews</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/slipknot/" target="_blank">#Slipknot</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/soilwork/" target="_blank">#Soilwork</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/swedish-metal/" target="_blank">#SwedishMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/thrash-metal/" target="_blank">#ThrashMetal</a></p>