Earlier this year I reflected on where to take this blog. Reviewing music has been my bread and butter for a long time now but I feel it has taken away from why I started this blog in the first place. It was a tool to discover new bands and explore far-flung music scenes, thanks in large to the Internet. I'm constantly discovering new bands and releases but I feel that (through time and the burden of pressure I've put on myself), I haven't been able to appreciate and immerse myself in the way I should have.
I have decided that now is the time to change that, subtly. Picking a starting point has been hard but I have finally found one. On this sticky summer evening in the UK, I bring you an introduction to Ukrainian black metal band Floscule. Members play or have previously played in bands including White Ward, Silvern and Waidelotte amongst many others.
Floscule formed in the Mykolaiv Oblast region of Ukraine in 2022 (according to Metal Archives). They consist of guitarist Serhii Kovalenko, bassist Anton Pelyanskii, Drummer Petro Buday, as well as vocalists Andrii Pechatkin and Vitalii Chelovenko. This line-up was responsible for creating and releasing their debut album Ї in 2024 via the very well-respected German label Vendetta Records.
Forming a band at a time of such turmoil for a country must have been tough but there’s a steadfast resilience that Ukranian bands embody. The cover-art of their debut album highlights only too well the plight that they have been through and continue to face at the hands of a deranged foreign dictator.
If you’re wondering what they sound like, I’ll try and summarise as best I can. They’re a mix of more traditional crust/black metal and modern melodic/groovy black metal, without venturing into the realms of blackgaze. If you’re not one for the raw, icy black metal championed by Scandinavia, this will be a good half-way house for you.
Alongside wanting to share Floscule with you, I also wanted to use this post to help share emerging online music platform Ampwall. With Spotify becoming somewhat of a cesspit when it comes to supporting emerging bands/artists and Bandcamp upsetting it’s artist base by changing it’s payment methods, Ampwall offers bands/artists a way to grow organically while offering fans a genuine mechanism in which to support them.
You can stream and purchase Ї digitally via Floscule's Ampwall profile here -
Floscule Linktree - https://linktr.ee/floscule_band
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