ORBIT CULTURE is a band poised. The Swedish quartet’s Century Media debut, Death Above Life “, is not merely a statement of how far the band has come, but it is the sound of metal in the most modern sense. ”This record represents change, a new beginning,” says ORBIT CULTURE guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Niklas Karlsson. “It brings up a lot of good and bad emotions but it’s a big change for the better. It feels like a rebirth.”

Already, ORBIT CULTURE has distinguished themselves with a steady stream of jaw-dropping albums including 2023’s Descent and its 2021 predecessor Nija. They’ve seized stages with the likes of Slipknot, Knocked Loose and Trivium, blown away festival crowds with their layered, melodic death metal scraping sound and won “Next Big Thing” status in a way even the most promising outfits can’t approach. Death Above Life lifts ORBIT CULTURE’s years of hard work with a sharpened songwriting edge and swaggering confidence. From the album’s scorching opener, “Inferna” to its clench-fisted title track to the elegiac closer, “The Path I Walk”, It’s clear: ORBIT CULTURE is at the top of their game.

Despite coming from a country rich in metal history, ORBIT CULTURE’s story is one of isolated teens in the rural town of Eksjö, Sweden, making music surrounded by dense, Scandinavian woods and winter gloom. “It’s dark and cold all the time and the only thing you have is snow and streetlights,” says Niklas. Inspired by a steady diet of Metallica, Gojia and Static-X, Karlsson found an outlet that would eventually become an obsession. “We were small-town kids from nowhere,” he says. “We were never part of a scene or anything, so we had to do it ourselves. We’re still very much of a ‘Do It Yourself’ kind of band. I tried to learn as much as I could during those formative years.” Learning programs like Qbase and utilizing homespun tools, the sound of ORBIT CULTURE began as most bands do: rough-hewn but bursting with ideas.. “I used my sister’s SingStar microphone!” the frontman laughs.

By the release of 2018’s Redfog, ORBIT CULTURE’s sound and lineup (rounded out by guitarist Richard Hansson, bassist Fredrik Lennartsson and drummer Christopher Wallerstedt) solidified. “That’s when it went from a laptop project to an actual band,” Niklas notes. “But, up until 2021, we hadn’t done more than 10 or 15 shows!” A first European tour with Rivers of Nihil and Black Crown Initiate set the stage for ORBIT CULTURE to emerge a powerful live proposition that was furthered by tours with Swedish heroes In Flames and Avatar. “As Bjorn from In Flames told me, ‘You can rehearse songs in the rehearsal space, but the real rehearsal is playing live,’” says Niklas.

ORBIT CULTURE’S DIY ethos also extends to ORBIT CULTURE’s visuals. The band is intimately ensconced in every aspect of their output – down to shooting and directing most of their striking video clips. “We thought some of the video people couldn’t match the vision we have,” Karlsson reasons. “So, we bought a camera ourselves and rather than renting stages or props, we shot a lot in the woods, with the woods being mysterious where we live, it was the perfect backdrop for our band.” Down to the band’s utterly disturbing dark-on-dark artwork, ORBIT CULTURE’s vision is nothing short of uncompromising. Down to Death Above Life’s H.R. Giger-esque cover painting by Slovakian artist Miroslav Pecho, Karlsson & Co’s Karlsson & Co’s eldritch imagery is coming into sharper focus.

Karlsson also credits his love for soundtracks and cinematic soundscapes for fleshing out ORBIT CULTURE’s sound and vision. Composers including Hans Zimmer (Dune, Interstellar) and Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings) have become a huge influence on the band. “So much more than any metal being written today,” Niklas states. “Every one of us would rather listen to the Inception soundtrack. It’s timeless. When I get stuck writing, those tools and inspiration are there, whether it’s cellos or pianos which adds texture. We write very easy riffs and structures, so turning to someone like Hans Zimmer leads us to taking the ending of a songs like ‘Inferna’ and making the final chorus bigger and more cinematic. Out dream is to do an ORBIT CULTURE orchestral record, our version of [Metalllica’s] S&M!”

Writing sessions commenced for Death Above Life once the band returned home from their exhaustive world tour in 2023. Karlsson decamped to his home studio to begin the writing process. He freely admits that they got more than their fair share of inspiration on the road. Their arena run with Slipknot in early 2024 opened the band’s eyes to bigger possibilities. “If we never did the Slipknot shows, for instance,” says Niklas. “I would never have written a song like ‘Bloodhound’ on the new album. Just watching them every night, there was an intensity and furious rage that we got to see closely, firsthand, pushed us”. However, a track like “Inside the Waves” shows that ORBIT CULTURE isn’t afraid to flex their songwriting into new arenas. “For me, that was going into a Linkin Park phase,” Karlsson freely admits. “I wanted to write something that was easy and singalong friendly. Of course, it’s not written for the masses, because if I tried to do that, I would fail miserably!”