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post- and prog-metal
" Primal, powerful, and dynamic music, riddled with complex emotional themes "
Ardent, loud, and ferocious. This is the sound of Ukrainian post-hardcore, prog-metal trio Vøvk. What more do you expect from a band whose name means wolf in English. Since the beastly noise-act came together, they have toured throughout Europe and played at some of the biggest festivals in Ukraine, delivering their emotional and intense sounds. Poetic, Ukrainian lyrics combine with crunching guitar work and intricate, powerful drum rhythms to create a metal montage that is neither oppressive nor pretentious. Vøvk has honed an honest, rich musical sonic language, encapsulated by their latest album, Litera (2025), featuring Cult of Luna’s Johannes Persson, which serves as a testament to everything the band has endured to date.
Embracing many modern elements that constitute contemporary post- and prog-metal sounds, Vøvk have carved out a unique niche within the modern rock world. Formed in Kyiv back in 2016, founding member, vocalist and bassist Oleksandr Kuts now plays alongside guitarist Yehor Druzenko, and drummer Yevhenii Khruliov, who both joined the band in 2022. As one of the few rock bands that sing in Ukrainian to have found international success, Vøvk has managed to break the confines of their borders, while receiving critical acclaim from many renowned publications, including Visions, Diffus, among others. Influenced by a wide variety of acts, including Deafheaven, Alcest, King Crimson, amongst others, their sound has been compared to the likes of Mastodon, Cave In, and The Mars Volta, with their primal, powerful, and dynamic music, riddled with complex emotional themes. Combining lush, melodic moments with visceral guitar work, creative rhythmic structures, and impassioned vocals, the band’s sound embodies their collective journey to date, shaped by the struggle and loss of war; a music that speaks through emotion.
Their latest conceptual release, Litera (2025), expands upon their already emphatic and emotional sound. It’s a testament to their endurance, touching on elements of hope and renewal of life in Ukraine. The album’s title is a play on words, combining terra (Latin for “earth”) and itera (iteration, part of a cycle). Litera is an emotional landscape in times of upheaval. The backdrop of war is never far from the album’s central themes. The feelings of exhaustion, anxious calm, and the echoes of old fears resonate through the record’s bursts of energy, like the cycles of nature that endlessly repeat. Each song is a season of the band’s life, littered with metaphors and inspired by the landscapes and culture of their native home, Ukraine. The lyrics explore the intersection of the symbolic and the personal, creating phantasmagoric narratives. That the band sings in Ukrainian is an homage to their land, and an act of resistance in the face of the oppressor, who tries to denounce their heritage. A wolf’s cry in an era of upheaval.
