Death Above Life


Death Above Life is the fifth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Orbit Culture. It was released on 3 October 2025, via Century Media in LP, CD and digital formats.

Background

The album, consisting of ten songs with a total runtime of approximately fifty-three minutes, was produced by Buster Odeholm. It precedes the band's 2023 full-length release, Descent. The band vocalist Niklas Karlsson noted about the album, "It brings up a lot of good and bad emotions but it's a big change for the better. It feels like a rebirth."
The title track was released as a single on 10 June 2025, alongside a music video.

Reception

The album received positive reviews, Nick Ruskell of Kerrang! remarked, "Death Above Life feels like they're hauling themselves into the next weight category," giving the album a rating of four. Blabbermouth Dom Lawson assigned it a rating of nine, describing it as "so powerful and distinctive that it should make peddlers of cookie-cutter mainstream metal feel thoroughly ashamed of themselves."
In a four-star review for Metal Hammer, Stephen Hill stated, "So much of Death Above Life is utterly thrilling. "The Tales of War" is Meshuggah-style death metal boom and burst; "Hydra" features some utterly breathtaking half-time headbanging grooves; and the title track's, stomping, crushing tech metal will immediately weasel its way into your mind."
Randy Radic of New Noise gave the album a four-star rating, referring to it as "a 10-track collection of songs both substantial and full of looming shadows," and opining "With Death Above Life, Orbit Culture demonstrates their ability to not only evolve but maintain full command of their development." Writing for Metal.de, Mirko Pidde opined, "The record could have used a little more variety and the somewhat too well-intentioned loudness is negative here and there, but ultimately Death Above Life has become a damn strong death metal album that every open-minded metalhead should have on their list."

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

Orbit Culture

Additional contributor