ALBUM REVIEW: Descent – Orbit Culture

There’s been a feverish buzz around ORBIT CULTURE ever since Nija erupted into eardrums in 2020, but the same tired old pandemic story played out; people loved the record, and the band, but there was no momentum, no touring. Thankfully, ORBIT CULTURE didn’t let that dissuade them and instead followed it with their Shaman EP that showcased their GOJIRA-meets-METALLICA hybrid could strip out some of Nija’s complexity and still melt faces, and we’re at last graced with new album Descent that, three years on and several tours later, shows a band ready to make their own bid for modern metal supremacy.

Descending is the standard orchestral intro; it’s got more than a little flair for the dramatic, as the band themselves do, and it’s all a bit Hans Zimmer, giving it the sense that the band wrote it more as entrance music than an introduction to the album proper. That’s a minor niggle, even if the ostentatious 45 seconds that open Black Mountain would be better suited in its thrashing melodeath riff backed by warlike, slow drums. The groove it locks into is ludicrous though, a pit-inciting monster along with the towering chorus. Sorrower is similarly groove-laden, double kicks underpinning a churning guitar while the vocals in the chorus are gritty and anthemic. 

All of it points to a band that’s taken the complexity of Nija and the simplicity of Shaman and gleefully landed somewhere between the two, and it’s to their credit. Rather than parts that, as band leader Niklas Karlsson has admitted in the past, they were concerned about pulling off live and still giving as much energy as they could, it’s an album that pulls its drama from groove and an injection of symphonic elements that lend plenty of bombast without falling into symphonic metal tropes. Closer Through Time exemplifies this, as even with a slow burn start with swells of strings, the band still rein it in and know when to let either Niklas or the guitars sing in an epic conclusion.

If there is an issue, it’s the band’s lack of self-editing. Almost every single song reaches the five minute mark and leads to an album that sprawls over fifty minutes when it could easily be ten minutes shorter and much tauter – and better – for it. The only song that feels it truly earns its length is the aforementioned Through Time, as it constantly crescendos throughout, always layering something new right up to when everything suddenly drops out for a soft, acoustic end. Otherwise, songs like Sorrower, From The Inside and The Aisle of Fire could benefit from tightening up though are on their own merits, extremely compelling. 

The better course of action might simply to have had fewer songs, as Descent maintains effectively one of two paces throughout; it’s either a pulverising rush or a churning groove, all bar Through Time. Alienated succeeds in channelling AT THE GATES in its opening but once more shifts into that same battering ram.

These are, frankly, all rather minor issues; ORBIT CULTURE are exceptionally good at what they do, melding thrasher influences with melodeath and modern metal to create something very compelling, and Descent will surely accelerate their rise up the ranks, but some variety and a bit less sprawl would do them wonders. 

Rating: 7/10

Descent is set for release on August 18th via Seek & Strike. 

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