It’s a wonder the Euro-metalcore folks don’t come together for ‘supergroups’ more often. The majority seem to be on simpatico journeys with their music anyway (read: they all sound the same), and it’s not like most of them are so high-demand that they can’t spare the time. They also seem to fall off the radar hard, which seems to be the case with both ALAZKA and Time, The Valuator, from the remains of whom rise FLOYA. Naturally they’ve found a home on Arising Empire already, though fear not—that isn’t an omen for homogeneity to come. Props to FLOYA for cutting out the middleman and just being a pop-rock band like so many of the others evidently want to. There’s no point in affixing yourself to metalcore out of nothing but tradition, particularly when they’re actually rather okay at going pop.
However, like with seemingly everything that falls out of this neverending scene, there’s the caveat of a titanic grading curve to be appreciated. Consolidating two sets of poppier instincts is a good move, but it’s also worth considering the whole other contingent of hyper-sleek, metalcore-adjacent pop-rock that’s just as tightly packed. It’s a situation where, outside the luxury of a vacuum, FLOYA won’t necessarily dazzle in what they do. Evocative of Hands Like Houses (almost a dead-ringer in Phil Bayer’s vocals), Normandie and a whole host of strikingly similar acts, if nothing else, FLOYA’s knack for total, utter assimilation is practically flawless.
All of which is to say, you’ll have a good idea of what Yume sounds like, even when discounting how most of it has been around since at least last year. The carapace of production holds together the swirling, ethereal pop-rock contained within, in which colour is relegated to small, sporadic pockets that, even then, remain pretty muted. Beyond that, the cavernous vocals extolling big emotionality or liberation (see Stay or Wonders for how that plays out) are in their regular spot in terms of timbre, clean and crisp with the hint of a native accent that still won’t overpower a desire to be explicitly Americanised. It’s all tried-and-true within those broad strokes, though not to where FLOYA are subsumed entirely. The influence of what’s around them has them on a leash so short it’s almost microscopic, but there’s still wiggle room to achieve something with that.
On Yume, that’s basically twofold. The first—and by far the least consequential—are the drops on Willows and Fluorescent, likely trying to emulate the euphoria of someone like Illenium or Gryffin with its hulking buzz of synth. It’s seldom that impressive, especially on the latter where the creaking, sawing guitar making its way through is another source of distraction that isn’t needed. (Plus, when you can’t even extrapolate a pattern from them within the structure of FLOYA themselves, they just seem even more like weird, clunky oddities.) Far more important is the increased prevalence of guitar, likely positioned to be FLOYA’s ‘thing’ within this scene. A bit of a stretch? Maybe, but with the proliferation of wind-tunnel solos that do genuinely elevate Weaver or Lights Out, they’re pockets of inspiration without immediate parallels. It’s a start, if you’re being charitable.
It’s all probably sounding a bit overly critical when, in practice, for what they’re doing, FLOYA aren’t too bad. They can leverage their sound’s inherent likability as well as most others, and ride on big songs to get to the finish line without hassle. Clearly a sentiment of “Wide open skies breathing life into you” isn’t lost; when FLOYA soar, they hit their stride fast. Stay is the first Normandie-esque dopamine hit that also happens to be the album’s best; from there, the clicks and chirps on Wonders’ mix opens it out further, while the title track gets some life as an uplifting and aspirational (if a wee bit saccharine) closer. The Hymn, on the other hand, takes the form of a darker rock song, still under a heavy dose of production but working with some distinct churn that’s well handled in this vein.
Again, it’s all incremental how enrapturing this actually is, but sometimes you just need to go with it. Between where they came from and where they’ve ended up, there’s no good opportunity for the members of FLOYA to branch out into something new, nor has there been any indication they even want to. This feels about right as they place they’ve ended up—the other half of a dichotomy they’d previously flirted with, now just made more blatant. And to a degree, you can’t fault them for jumping on the opportunity when they can pull it off. Yume is far from stellar, but slimmed down and unburdened from an even-more-stagnant metalcore framework, it works for what it is. Pretty decent stuff.
For fans of: Hands Like Houses, Normandie, ALAZKA
‘Yume’ by FLOYA is released on 8th March on Arising Empire.
Words by Luke Nuttall
