Orbit Culture celebrates its tenth year with a fourth album.
Anticipated since the release of their last EP two years ago, Niklas Karlsson (guitar/vocals), Fredrik Lennartsson (bass), Richard Hansson (guitar) and Christopher Wallerstedt (drums) continue their collaboration with Seek & Strike to announce Descent.
The band kicks off their album with Descending, a relatively dark and ominous instrumental introduction that will, for example, allow the band to take position on stage, then Black Mountain strikes with a groovy opening rhythm over which heady leads take their place, followed by massive vocal parts. The jerky riffs finally explode into a massive double-kick-led acceleration, creating a contrast with the chorus where vocals become more accessible before giving way to Sorrower, which lets its heaviness integrate a slightly oppressive environment. Catchy patterns follow one after the other, allowing the band to add sharp harmonics, an epic solo and a violin break, which also accompanies the final until From The Inside, a track for which the band has provided us with a clip in the middle of the apocalypse, sheltering its melancholic tones. Orchestrations add a more impressive touch to an already massive rhythm where howls and clean vocals answer each other before letting dissonant riffs lead us to Vultures of North, the first single unveiled for this album, which immediately revitalizes the atmosphere. The obvious natural groove created by drums allows the musicians to place dark leads between two waves of pure aggression, followed by Alienated, which in turn hits us with its devastating vivacity. The track is short and doesn’t waste a single moment in letting howls roll over us on rather fast, energetically-influenced riffs, before letting The Aisle Of Fire offer us soothing tones before the hurricane unleashes itself again, mixing hard-hitting riffs with more airy leads once more. The track gradually slows down before picking up again after the break, joining Undercity and its screaming harmonics to develop a gloomy approach combined with powerful spasmodic riffs, as well as the usual diverse and unique vocal parts. The Grind-influenced break is surprising, but drives into an intense and extremely melodic section before Descent, the eponymous track, returns to this icy Industrial approach coupled with its massive rhythmic from which furious screams emerge. The track does, however, feature a softer keyboard section before returning to its imposing saturation, which eventually fades out to allow Through Time, the final track, to unveil its mysterious tones and sensitive clean vocals, which are eventually transformed into a haunting rhythm borrowed from Doom/Death, and which gradually ignites.
Highly anticipated, Descent honors its predecessors, placing massive riffs between Groove and Melodic Death in a modern atmosphere. Orbit Culture has turned a corner, and is now rightfully rubbing shoulders with the big names in Metal.
95/100