“If I let go of life, who will save me now?”
In the modern heavy music scene, there are truly only a few bands that sound uniquely like only themselves. Whether they mean to or not, bands often end up sounding like a slightly different variation of a bigger band in the scene. Orbit Culture is a strong example of a unique band in the modern heavy music scene. Starting in 2013, the band would establish its presence with a sound vaguely similar to Gojira, but incorporating elements of melodic death metal and metalcore to complement its style of vicious groove metal, rather than technical death metal. This style would result in hits such as their 2014 debut album, In Media Res, and 2016’s Rasen, which would see them get early success and attain a sizable fanbase. However, 2020 would see them starting to lean their sound towards a more primal groove metal sound with their album Nija, resulting in true uniqueness. This fresh new sound would be explored further on 2021’s Shaman, and even further still on Descent, resulting in them eventually signing to Century Media Records, which leads us to today with their latest melodeath cut, Death Above Life.
Death Above Life sees Orbit Culture doubling down on the expansive songwriting showcased on their previous three-song EP, The Forgotten, and producing a far more varied album than before by incorporating progressive metal elements into their songs and crafting grooves that are more engaging than ever.
Starting the album, we are immediately introduced to an excellent example of the increased presence of progressive metal elements in the band’s sound with “Inferna“. After a brief but satisfyingly brutal set of intro riffs, we are quickly transitioned into the first progressive section of the album that switches up the time signature of the song, rather than stopping the momentum like they had an unfortunate tendency to do on their previous albums. The progressive time signatures here only serve to create more wonder and bolster the band’s already smart songwriting throughout Death Above Life‘s runtime. Another satisfying example of this ethos is contained within the album’s second track, “Bloodhound“, which is one of the album’s heaviest tracks. Rather than going for straightforward heaviness, “Bloodhound” incorporates a fascinating djent pattern that melds well into its bruising nature and allows for the breakdown to have a much more expansive and engaging feel.
Another facet of Death Above Life that makes the album as a whole feel like a more complete package is just how much better the band’s ability at writing catchy grooves has become, and there’s no better example of this than the album’s lead single, “The Tales of War“. Rather than repeat the same riff through most of the song, “The Tales of War“ instead opts to have expansive and creative riffs repeat far fewer times than they would have on previous albums, which makes for a much more organic and infectious experience in a way that will no doubt leave the listener thoroughly engaged all the way through. Conversely, the album’s title track contains a lurching mid-paced groove that gives the song a primal feeling that few bands can execute as well as Orbit Culture have.
While Death Above Life is no doubt the band’s strongest album thus far, the songs on the album are structured far too similarly, with most starting with a chunky instrumental intro, switching into a big chorus, before transitioning to a breakdown, and then bringing back the same verse groove to bring the song to its closing moments. While this, in and of itself, is nothing too distracting to the listener’s experience, it would have been nice to hear the songs differentiate themselves a bit more to make the album more impactful.
Death Above Life is no doubt Orbit Culture’s most engaging and exciting album to date, showing just how much the band has grown with their songwriting capabilities in the two short years since they released Descent. If the Orbit Culture keeps evolving their songwriting in the way they did on Death Above Life, they will become a generational melodeath band in no time.
8/10
Death Above Life releases October 3rd via Century Media Records, and you can pre-order it here.