After the block buster release of their fourth album Descent and touring slots with metal heavyweights Meshuggah and Trivium, the rise for Sweden’s Orbit Culture has been astronomically fast over the last few years. Now Eksjö’s finest return with three more crushing, riff filled tracks to shatter your skull. Dedicated to the diehard fans that have helped them achieve their dreams, and even though The Forgotten is a confutation of Descent it stands tall and strong in its own right.
During the writing of Descent, songs ‘Sound of The Bell’ and ‘The Upheaval’ emerged as forerunners to be on the album, however as the writing process progressed they were much more experimental than the rest of the album. After heading home from touring with Avatar, the final track to glue the EP together ‘While We Serve’, was created. Usually when you think of off cuts they’re the tracks that sound the weakest and are confined to bonus track status. However, Orbit Culture’s versatility, creativity and abundance of explosive energy shines through across the three tracks.
Opening with ‘While We Serve’, Orbit Culture’s fury is once agin thrust upon you with a cataclysmic riff after an unnerving synth intro. This sets the tone for the EP as there is an experimental atmosphere throughout alongside intense lyrics that make you pause and think,. This specifically applies to the gut wrenching song ‘Sound of The Bell’ that channels the grief and despair concerning the violence that is currently at large in the world.
The Forgotten doesn’t rely on the band’s trademark big riff, epic chorus, big riff structure, instead it looks to expand on that shows exciting potential for the band moving forward. It lives and breathes as an independent release and it does it a small disservice to say it is a continuation of Descent when it looks and feels vastly different to what has come before it. That being said, it will undoubtedly satiate the veracious appetites of their fans.
Orbit Culture’s rise has been incredible to witness, his is clearly a band on a creative and motivational high, and they’re acting on it with ruthless ambition. This feels like an interesting step in a new direction for the band as they continue to hone their sound on their quest to become modern metal juggernauts.