Watching flipp and when my mate went through his brakeless times, it's not a case of kicking on the backwheel like you would with brakes, but actually just leaning back and pulling the front end back, as of you're gunna do a backwards manual.
LTD guitars are generally just awesome. Play well and sound nice. You could always change the pickup to something bigger if the stock ones aren't enough. However ltd stuff is quite leaned towards metal