Orbit Culture: Vultures Of North
If there’s one tag that’s almost guaranteed to ruin a music career, it’s “next big thing.” The history of metal is littered with bands who were heralded as future heroes one moment and vanished into obscurity the next. If we’ve learned anything about the bands who go on to become icons of metal, it’s that success is achieved rather than granted by over-enthusiastic journalists. Label an upcoming act as the “next big thing,” and you’re almost guaranteed to turn people away. ORBIT CULTURE have been called that for the past five years.
Ever since their breakthrough with 2020’s incredible Nija, they’ve been heralded as future festivals headliners and the industry has been all but breathing down their necks, eagerly anticipating the moment they officially become megastars. They’ve got a string of successful tours and recordings behind them, but there’s still a weight of expectation that the best is yet to come. Surely, that must get annoying?
“I don’t really think of it much,” says singer/guitarist Niklas Karlson, as he joins us via Zoom from his home in Sweden. “If we’re still getting called that in ten years’ time I might think differently, but we’re getting bigger. The tours and stuff that we do keep getting better and what matters to me the most is that I’m able to do this for a living now. I get to play shows and travel all over the world. For me, it feels big already.”
In fact, while ORBIT CULTURE might not have exploded into an arena-filling act yet, their gradual rise is working in their favour. Their streaming numbers are consistently going up and the crowds are slowly getting bigger, and even small movements are still movements.
“I’m just comfortable playing in the lane that we’re in. We’ve been rising very steadily, the band has been around for ten years now, but for an outside perspective it might seem like we’ve come out of nowhere. You have bands like LORNA SHORE and SLEEP TOKEN who’ve exploded and are huge, and I feel like in comparison, we’re taking baby steps. But we are going in the right direction.”
Death Before Life is the latest step. The band’s fifth full-length album is a serious heavyweight and one that even casual headbangers will want to hear. It’s an unholy fusion of melodic death metal, massive GOJIRA-style grooves, and crushing tech metal. And it sounds huge! Death Above Life is the metal equivalent of thunderclap echoing through the mountains. It’s almost a shame that we’re not currently experiencing an alien invasion; this would be the perfect accompaniment to an enormous spacecraft touching down in the desert.
But despite touring with huge names like SLIPKNOT and TRIVIUM, it turns out that Niklas got most of his inspiration from an unexpected source. That epic sense of scale comes from his love of Hans Zimmer and other film composers.
“We are a metal band, and that’s never gonna change,” he laughs, “but we’re surrounded by metal all day long, so when the time comes to listen to music, we go for something different. Movie soundtracks can be very exciting, but they tend to be calmer than metal and less heavy on the ears.”
Death Above Life is full of grandiose compositions. The Path I Walk is a tragic ballad, beefed up with acoustic melodies and orchestration, while The Tales Of War starts with a mood-setting violin and turns into a thunderous roar of power-sadness. This is not your older brother’s melodeath; it’s heavier than the Death Star and would be best appreciated in a crowd of thousands while lasers illuminate the night.
This is captured perfectly on Hydra. Aside from being a magnificent centrepiece for the record, it’s also been treated to a suitably cinematic music video. It sees the band performing in the desert, the camera swirling around them as they play to a backdrop of sand dunes. It’s reminiscent of the DEFTONES classic Minerva, although you half expect colossal sand worms to start bursting from the ground at any moment.
“We got the idea from DUNE; I thought that those movies looked so big. I mean, it’s tough to not have a desert look big, they’re massive. But how they got that into the lens of the camera, I thought it was so fascinating. And Hans Zimmer‘s soundtrack work made that movie look and feel fucking huge! That was something that I tried to replicate on my own, in a bit, you know?”
“It was all on location, there’s not a single green screen involved. We did the Knotfest in San Diego, then flew to Los Angeles and did the video in the desert, then flew out to Mexico to play with SLIPKNOT again. It’s very windy in the desert, I’m finding sand in my Dr. Marten’s to this day.”
Niklas’ footwear might have suffered, but the work paid off. It’s a stunning video, and even with all the grandeur, there’s a nasty undertone. From the H.R. Giger style cover art to the grim melodies underpinning every track, Death Above Life has an unsettling, nightmarish vibe. These tracks are catchy, but they’re also ominous and doom-laden. The title track especially, is a nightmare-inducing anthem; their love of film scores and increased budget has helped ORBIT CULTURE create an incredible record.
For all the “next big thing” pressure though, they’ve remained committed to who they are. ORBIT CULTURE haven’t written an Enter Sandman style hit yet, and haven’t dialled down the heavy since Nija first brought them to our attention. Death Before Life is uncompromising and is arguably less accessible than its predecessor, so the arena headline slots might have to wait for now. However, if their current trajectory continues, they’ll get there in the end, and the wait will be worth it. For now, get Death Above Life in your ears, and enjoy the record that Niklas describes as “ORBIT CULTURE magnified.”
Death Above Life is out now via Century Media Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS124 here:
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