You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
Ever wondered what it would sound like if The Cure suddenly became an extreme metal band? No, of course you haven’t. But, thanks to intrepid Swedish tandem Floating, the question you never asked has an answer – and it turns out, it sounds absolutely incredible.
This pair make no secret of their genre-smashing ambitions. Composed of singer/guitarist Arvid Sjödin and bassist/drum programmer Andreas Hörmark, they promote themselves as “death metal/post-punk”, and that descriptor is lethally accurate. Their bread and butter is in screaming, blasting, gut-churching volume, yet all of their songs come adorned with gloomy guitar parts that sound as if they’re fresh from Robert Smith’s fretboard.
The follow-up to 2022’s self-released debut The Waves Have Teeth, Hesitating Lights makes the fusion of two previously unwedded styles feel shockingly natural. The influence of the more ominous and disorienting bands in death metal, such as Ulcerate and Imperial Triumphant, is obvious. And, off of that backbone, the passages of lingering lead guitar only further the darkness that Floating are so eager to convey.
Opening song I Reached The Mew both lays down the gauntlet and becomes more than the sum of its parts. Its first, echoing riff wouldn’t sound out of place on The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds or The Sisters Of Mercy’s First And Last And Always, and it keeps the same brooding tone as it abruptly gets backed up by walls of percussion and distorted rhythm guitar. Sjödin soon starts roaring on top of the sonic maelstrom, but that repeating riff keeps everything focussed and gives it all an enduring melody.
The rest of the album exists on a spectrum between 80s gloom and technical death metal mania, with that sliding scale proving more than enough to keep these eight songs and 35 minutes compelling. Grave Dog tilts on the border of noise-metal bedlam, lurching forward with atonal and wonky guitars. On the other hand, Cough Choir is a spacious, jangling piece that would be pure post-punk were it not for the vocals.
Everything wraps up with The Waking, the latter of half of which finds Floating at their catchiest and most inspired. A shimmering guitar solo dances on top of unrepentant blast beats, not just proving the instrumental dexterity of the band behind one of 2025’s weirdest genre mash-ups, but also reaffirming that they know how to write damn smooth licks worthy of the masters.
With lesser musicians, Floating would be a curiosity, a gimmick that befuddles the listener then quickly lets them move on. However, on Hesitating Light, they prove themselves to be more than that, writing songs strong enough to pull ears back again and again. Call this lot weird and a bit provocative if you want – in equal measure, though, they’re very, very good.
Hesitating Lights is out now via Transcending Obscurity.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
