Orbit Culture got the memo. When MusicRadar summoned guitarists Richard Hansson and Niklas Karlsson to the tent at Norway’s Tons Of Rock Festival in June, they brought metal guitars in good standing – black paint jobs, matching black hardware and pointy edges as standard.
“We like pointy black guitars,” they explain. “As much metal it can be.” In other words, the Swedish melodeath champs are not playing around. They know what works.
Karlsson admits that he has some alternates – one in camo, one in white – but this is what they take with them when it’s time to get to work, and laying waste to a festival crowd in Oslo, Norway, is a big day at the office.
This video segment was convened by ESP Guitars, which both Hansson and Karlsson endorse. Pick up a copy of the quartet’s latest rager, Death Above Life, and you’ll hear them all over the recording.
But Karlsson had to show us something first, a custom-built Explorer-style electric guitar from Dutch brand KAP that was made as an homage to his hero, James Hetfield.
“I’ve always wanted this MX-250 shape. The lawsuit shape,” says Karlsson. “I bought this from him and I’m totally in love. Cool-ass guitar.”
It’s a guitar in which you will find Seymour Duncan Black Winter electric guitar pickups. Orbit Culture use them as standard. You might think this is a little counterintuitive in metal, that they are swimming against the tide – this is a demographic that has long favoured EMG active pickups as the industry standard, with the multi-voiced Fishman Fluence humbuckers challenging EMGs hegemony in recent years.
I’ve always wanted this MX-250 shape. The lawsuit shape
Niklas Karlsson
But with Orbit Culture tuning down to Drop A, they argue that passive pickups give them more clarity in the lower registers. Hansson’s ESP/LTD Arrow Deluxe shipped with Fishman but he swapped them out for a set of Black Winters because “we love the sound of these fuckers”.
That was not the only mod. But we’ll hand it over to Hansson and Karlsson to walk you through the specs on these guitars, share some of the history behind them, and why the EverTune bridge changed everything for them – and how Karlsson’s ESP/LTD Snakebyte was brought back from the dead by after a nasty neck break.
Orbit Culture tour the Europe in October, arriving in the UK on November 10 at NX Newcastle. See Orbit Culture for more dates and ticket details. Death Above Life is out now via Century Media.
Visit Tons Of Rock for the latest on its 2026 plans.
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