Orbit Culture/ Ov Sulfur/ ALTAS

Phantom Light Media
Feb 21
4 min read

The last time Orbit Culture played in Portland, they were opening for Machine Head at the Roseland Theater back in 2024. They’d just released their album Descent to critical acclaim and then followed it with The Forgotten, a three-track EP that I was obsessed with at the time. I went and saw the show, Orbit Culture absolutely crushed it, and then they proceeded to disappear from the PNW for the next two years to my great disappointment. But during that time, the band blew up to new heights and released the excellent new album Death Above Life, which would soon result in their first full-length United States headlining tour. And stop number two would take place at the Star Theater here in Portland, which sold out within weeks of the announcement. It was certainly not your average Wednesday night, and I was very excited to see what lay in store.

The first band of the night was ATLAS, a Finnish band who were releasing their latest album that very night, titled “Sunder”. I’m not quite sure how to describe their sound (“rather thall-adjacent” is what I settled on) but it was heavy and gloomy and punctuated by truly beautiful cleans traded between their vocalist and guitarist. It was a much calmer sound than I was expecting for a melodeath-focused tour, but I can’t deny the ambience was incredible. Their drummer was of particular interest to me, making full use of his kit’s many cymbals in an accent-heavy style that seriously impressed me. They also got a surprisingly warm welcome from our crowd, who I could tell were definitely more oriented towards the punishingly brutal style of melodeath that Orbit Culture and second opener Ov Sulfur promised. But people were swayed within three songs of Atlas’s seven-song set, and they had a very long merch line by the end of the night to celebrate “Sunder” alongside them. Their singer Patrik looked quite surprised at the warm welcome, as I’m pretty sure this was their first US tour like…ever. Hopefully it was enough to convince them to come back sometime!

Next up was Ov Sulfur, a band I’ve seen about four or five times now over the course of various tour support slots. They continue to provide just all-around excellent melodic deathcore that holds up wonderfully, even from their first album nearly five years ago. Vocalist Ricky Hoover wasted no time in demanding circle pits from the crowd, who were properly warmed up by this point and eagerly responded during the first two songs. I had to move out of the center of the room almost immediately to avoid having my camera moshed to pieces as they swung into “Seed,” the one song from their newest album that I remembered the lyrics to. Speaking of which - the new album, titled “Evermore,” is an absolute beast of a record. Ov Sulfur have only been around since 2020, but they’ve been leveling their game up consistently and the new songs absolutely crush live audiences. I’m surprised at this point that they haven’t done any notable headlining tours because people treated this set as if Orbit Culture weren’t even on the bill, and that’s very much a compliment to Ov Sulfur. I fully expect them to come back in the next six months or so given their seemingly insatiable love of touring, and hopefully we’ll see some headlining shows on the horizon for these up-and-coming deathcore bruisers.

Finally, it was time for Orbit Culture to take the stage, which they did with much gusto to the sound of menacing synthetic trumpets as the intro to “Death Above Life” blared into the darkened theater. Dual guitarists Niklas Karlsson and Richard Hansson wasted no time tearing through riff after riff for three songs with barely a pause, backed by the ferocious onslaught of drummer Chris Wallerstedt (one of my current metal drum icons) and some truly excellent backing vocals from bassist Fredrik Lennartsson. Their set was fairly short for a headliner at only 12 songs, but all five of their LPs were well-represented and the crowd went feral for every note. I’ve seen some heavy shows at the Star but this definitely had the best crowd and by far the most circle pits, alongside three separate walls of death for “Saw,” “While We Serve,” and “Vultures of North" respectively. I firmly believe Orbit Culture are on a path to headline (and maybe even sell out) bigger venues in the future based on the success of their earlier European headline run. It seems like Portland will be lucky enough to welcome the Swedes back in the future, as Niklas assured us we’d be seeing them “very very soon” with a wink as they tore through the final massive breakdown to “Vultures” (and yes I did put down my camera and get in the mosh for it, can’t a guy have some fun sometimes?). Then they departed as suddenly as they arrived, and just like that the house lights were up and “What Is Love” had replaced the cacophonous guitars of mere seconds ago. It was night and day from the chaos of the last few hours, but what a memorable few hours it had been. I stopped by the merch stand to show my support and snagged a signed copy of “Nija,” my favorite of their albums, while chatting with their merch guy about how insane the production for the stage show had been. Everything I saw tonight just added to my love for this band, and I’ll for sure be there when they next grace our stages.