Florence Black - SUN & MOON

What’s with modern rock and metal bands and shouting at us through the album liner? There’s been an uptick; it’s like conveying emotion in instant messaging in the early 2000s all over again. For anyone under the age of 30, instant messaging was like texting, but you had to be on the family computer to do it.  We can hear you just fine, Florence Black! Though, saying that, my tinnitus after years of festival abuse must be like how Quasimodo felt trying to sleep in the Notre Dame bell tower. Protect your ears, kids under 30 who are still reading, that part is not a joke. Luxury soft tissue inside there, and I don’t mean Andrex.

Also no joke, the hard rock stirrings of Florence Black! (my band PR career is going just fine, thank you very much). The Welsh valleys noisemakers have barrelled their way upwards over the last few years since their inception in 2013, bringing a blend of hard rock with a bit of power in the delivery system. Big vocals and big emotions are strong bedfellows, but they need a catalyst to ensure the mix doesn’t fail. Thankfully, the band are perfect at channelling that balance out through themselves and into your eagerly awaiting ear tunnels. 

An example to back up my claims, you ask? Go on then, since you asked so nicely. SUN & MOON might not be the hardest track they’ve ever put out, but this one is a soft start into serious swagger. That’s just Welsh musicians in general, I think; if you’ve never taken an ancestry test, the chance remains around 75% that Tom Jones is your dad. Their debut might have been a bit rough around the edges, but little gems like this show where Florence Black can be properly special in song craft and delivery, and it got better from there. A proper bit of Friday rock and roll, signed, sealed and delivered. Not sure about the loud ringing noise they put in all the way through the track, though.