ARTIST: Orbit Culture
EP: Shaman
LABEL: Seek & Strike
RELEASE DATE: 24 September 2021
RATING: Full marks!
In 2020, Sweden’s Orbit Culture released one of the most devastating metal albums of the year. It came right at the perfect time for the world to ingest, but sadly not at the right time for the band to really push on through touring. But, at least they have kept themselves very busy with streaming (including the Pulse of the Maggots Fest) and writing material for this new EP that has truly impressed me.
It must be said that many bands suffer from the old curse of releasing a phenomenal first album and then following it up with something rather forgettable. Luckily, Orbit Culture have kept the momentum flowing with this short, sweet and brutal 5-track EP.
All the lovely OC motifs are there: crushing low-end guitar tones, cinematic synths, drums that pummel the eardrums, pulsating bass lines and, of course, vocalist Niklas Karlsson’s brand of crushing screams and soaring melodies. As he himself says: “As much as we love metal, we love other music, too. We love a good hard-hitting song as much as the next guy, but we’ve always found that blending and mixing genres seems more fun for us at least, rather than deciding on a specific genre to write within the metal scene. It really helps us to be creative and motivated. I’m guessing that is something that we’ll always do.”
But even if this EP is a logical evolution through this progression in their career, explains Karlsson: “Shaman has that flow to be executed more in a live setting, which was one of the goals creating it. We want to be a band that’s able to run around the stage and engage with the audience, rather than standing in one place and sweating over weird guitar patterns. I think that’s the major difference between Nija to Shaman. We want people to be blown away live and the songs on this EP are somewhat constructed for that.“
I think they’ve succeeded in their plan and world domination is not far away for this quartet.