So when life gives you lemons, you make a batch of refreshing lemonade as well as saving the other half for Friday nights tequila shots, catering to whatever mood you may find yourself in at any given time.
Welsh rockers Florence Black’s debut full-length record is the aural equivalent, offering a multitude of soundtracks for whatever takes your fancy in that moment. On Weight of the World, the Merthyr Tydfil natives ebb effortlessly between heavy metal and classic rock, with production from Romesh Dodangoda (Motorhead, Bring Me The Horizon, Sylosis) making you question whether this really is just a trio comprising of vocalist/guitarist Tristan Thomas, bassist Jordan Evans, and drummer Perry Davies, or if their doppelgängers have allowed them to create a sound that is so full and round.
Foreign sounds penetrate the ear canal as Arabian instruments introduce the title track ‘Zulu’, the guitar work like an incoming ambush from the desert cliffs above and a threatening breakdown that scratches and howls like a ravenous jackal at your door under the light of a cloudless and full mooned sky. Whispered nu metal elements hold the fort on ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Deep End’, Evans’ industrial bass and Thomas’ guitar riffs exhibiting a twisted sense of pleasure that lures you in with empty promises and believable lies.
‘Groove Street’, the records token love song ‘So Far Away’, and Weight of the World’s second single ‘Sun and Moon’, dabble in the more classic rock and country orientated song structure, the influence of Santana’s ‘Black Magic Woman’ seeping through the cracks with a spilled dose of Black Stone Cherry choruses thrown into the mix.
It is not recommended that you drive down a highway whilst listening to ‘Can You Feel It?’ and closing track ‘The Light’ on your cars stereo, for fear your vehicle might just end up wrapped around a tree trunk due to the unavoidable adrenaline rush that called shotgun at the beginning of the joyride.
The gift of both worlds has had Florence Black performing at notable festivals from Steelhouse to Just Push Play, as well as headlining Scotlands Wildfire Festival, having Bullet for my Valentine’s Padge as a featured collaborator, and guesting vocals alongside fellow Welshmen Skindred at Bloodstock 2021. If the bar is this high already, then Weight of the World promises to surely bring in an abundance of further opportunities for Florence Black again and again and again.