By David O’Neill
With the success of the first album, ‘Weight Of The World’, in 2021 anyone who is familiar with this trio from Merthyr Tydfil (and there can’t be too many nowadays after the extensive ÜK and European tours of the past two years), should have been eagerly awaiting the second album – especially with its release delayed by two whole months from its original date!
Having followed the band since their 2015 appearance at Steelhouse festival, I could definitely be counted in the number of eager devotees awaiting this offering. Another journey to the temple of the wizard Romesh Dodangoda that is Longwave Recording Studios has come up with another 12 track stunner, as adept and varied as the last album. There is nowhere more obvious than in the first three singles released, ‘Start Again’, ‘Look Up’ and ‘Don’t Hold Me Down’.
The aptly titled ‘Start Again’ opens both these offerings and the album. Immediately you know you are in typical distorted guitar/drum/bass driven Florence Black territory and feel the weight of the track shaking you viscerally as you would expect at any FB gig for the just under three minutes of pure unadulterated heavy rock. Breathless!
So how do you get your breath back? Well the guys give you slightly less of a hammering with the opening riff of ‘Don’t Hold Me Down’ – until the hook and you feel the chug chug of Jordan’s bass and Perry’s drums shaking you again. Tristan’s guitar riff grabs you again at the breakdown and Perry gives you distorted backing vocals. Not quite as breathless but still rapid breathing.
The title track is out and out heavy metal with all the instruments hammering your auditory nerve from the outset – then a real curve ball in the vocally lighter chorus, this is going to become a staple of the set, I can see heads nodding now throughout the hook in the track.
Like anyone who starts getting a decent income, it appears that the trio head into the political commentary territory of ‘Taxman’ a really upbeat two minute track full of the usual FB instrumentalizational styles of drums/guitar/bass.
‘Look Up’ has a nice opening riff and slightly slower rhythm which gives some nice space to Tristan’s vocals, which are once again superbly mixed on all tracks by the wizard of “the ‘Diff”: at no point does the mix become muddy and every track is superbly layered to allow the whole composition to shine.
The gentler side of the band is displayed on this album by ‘Warning Sign’. A beautifully ethereal opening guitar riff leads into some gentler vocals, this is as close to a pop-rock track as ‘Sun And Moon’ was from the last album. Again I can see this garnering favour on the live set, and there is a great riff at the breakdown to help.
If I said gentle you’d be forgiven for thinking ‘Beautiful Lover’ would be the same style and in essence it almost is, as it appears to be about a breaking down relationship. Its about as gentle as these three get anyway.
Woah! Full throttle guitar/drums opens up ‘The Way Home’, another typical FB rattler that’ll get heads and arms shaking. The one thing you can never say about Florence Black is that you’ll get bored at a gig, none of their tracks are long enough for anyone to get bored, and there is so much variety across all the back catalogue from the last album and the three EPs. However, it must be getting harder to decide what tracks they are going to play at any gig.
‘Solid 9’ takes you back to the more visceral drum/bass opening of ‘Start Again’ and carries it through the just over two minutes of the rest of the track, before ‘Rockin’ Ring’ opens with a shimverb guitar riff before it gives vent to Perry’s heavily distorted vocal performance, similar to his live backing vocals on when they do Gunshot live (even if Benji Webbe doesn’t show up!). I assume this is the boys tipping their metaphorical hats to the well known German Festival. With Jordan’s bassline drubbing throughout the track and a real face ripper of a solo at the breakdown this is another one for the live set boys!
Hang on a minute – acoustic guitar again! Tristan, you must be going soft in your old age. ‘The Forest’ is another breather of a track – or is it? I actually like the variety in this track.
So how do you end this variable offering from the guys? Well, you’d be wrong if you thought it would be a faceburner of a track – it is another softer one; again it must be reminiscent of broken relationships and it is actually a very nice track too.
So in summary, this album is another wide variety of stylistic compositions but it is still heavily influenced by the solid rock and metal that Florence Black are known for, however, there is apparent maturity in the recognition that life changes all things and this can (and should) include music. After all look at all the successful groups over the decades, from the Rolling Stones latest release to the Beatles “last release”, all music is of a time and should stir memories for longevity. Some of these tracks will have a long life…
Well done, it’s a #Solid9 from me (sorry, couldn’t resist it).
- ‘Bed Of Nails‘ is released on 2 February.
- Florence Black tour in February:
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