The metal band Floscule, which features members from Silvern, White Ward, and Obrij, is based in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, a city with a shipbuilding history near the Black Sea in the southern part of the country, and an important transportation hub. As this source reports:
“In February and March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian military forces attacked Mykolaiv and placed it under siege. Ukrainian forces barred Russian forces from the city, though Russian artillery continued to shell it. By July, half of the pre-war population had left the city…. On 25 March 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Mykolaiv the title of Hero City of Ukraine due to the Battle of Mykolaiv.”
On September 27th, Vendetta Records will release Floscule‘s debut album, entitled Ї. Tomorrow, the band will release one of the album’s songs as a digital single, and we’re premiering it today with a lyric video. It has a history that connects with what Mykolaiv experienced in early 2022, and what the entire country has been experiencing as a result of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion, with no end in sight.
The name of the song is “A Tree of Life“. Floscule explain its historical inspiration:
Our track is an interpretation of “Oi u Luzi Chervona Kalyna” (Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow), a Ukrainian patriotic march based on a 17th-century Cossack song, first published in 1875 by Volodymyr Antonovych and Mykhailo Drahomanov.
Due to its association with Ukraine’s independence aspirations, the original song was banned during Ukraine’s time as a Soviet Republic. After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, singing “Chervona Kalyna” in Crimea became punishable by fines and imprisonment.
“A Tree of Life” builds on the original melody with black metal and crust riffs, a new structure, and our lyrics.
The band further explain: “Floscule isn’t about preserving conventionality or nostalgia. It’s about resurrecting ancient relics, once shrouded in dust, and presenting them in a modern context, rich with relevance to today’s challenges.”
Floscule aren’t the first modern musicians to make use of “Oi u Luzi Chervona Kalyna“. You can read about others, and about the song’s history, at this location. At that same location you can read the original song’s lyrics too. You can listen to a lovely a cappella rendition of it here, among other places, and the lyrics also appear there as subtitles.
You’ll detect that melody in Floscule‘s “A Tree of Life“, but of course their rendition is much heavier and hard-hitting, and it’s more harrowing too, in part because the lyrics are expressed in ferocious black-metal snarls but also because the caustic lilt of the riffing sounds more desperate, and the slow, ringing flow of the melody more grieving.
Yet the song’s hammering drums, surging bass-lines, blazing guitars, and intense screams also sound brazenly defiant and determined. No false hopes here, no visions through rose-colored glasses, because the music and the words starkly recognize the damage done, but the soul-stirring music looks toward a brighter horizon and refuses to surrender.
FLOSCULE:
Serhii Kovalenko: Guitars, Music
Andrii Pechatkin: Vocals, Lyrics (ex. White Ward, Waidelotte, Signals Feed The Void, mertvi dereva)
Anton Pelyanskii: Bass (Silvern)
Vitalii Chelovenko: Vocals, Lyrics (Silvern)
Petro Buday: Drums (Obrij, Vidmershiy Shmat)
“A Tree of Life” is available now for a modest price on Bandcamp:
https://floscule.bandcamp.com/track/a-tree-of-life
For more news about Floscule‘s debut album as it becomes available, follow the links below.
https://www.facebook.com/vendettacult/
https://www.instagram.com/vendettarecs
https://linktr.ee/floscule_band
https://www.instagram.com/floscule_band/
https://www.facebook.com/flosculeband