Dark, Intimate, and Quietly Devastating: LYCVNS - Flowers feat. Chris Tolliver of Come Correct (Track Review) Released: 4/27/26

                                         

Some collaborations happen because the stars align just right, and those features make sense on paper. And then some collaborations feel like they were always supposed to exist, two artists finding each other at exactly the right moment, making exactly the right thing. "Flowers" by LYCVNS featuring Chris Tolliver is firmly the second kind. And if you know either of these names, you already know this isn't going to be gentle. LYCVNS has been building momentum in the deathcore scene, and their last single, "Teeth," made it very clear what they're capable of. That track hit with the kind of focused, calculated aggression that turns casual listeners into devoted ones. So when they announced "Flowers," a title that sounds soft but lands like a freight train, the expectation was already high. They met it.

To understand what "Flowers" is really about, you have to understand where it comes from. The concept is built around betrayal, specifically the kind that comes from people who smile to your face and stab you in the back, and what it looks like to hold those people accountable in the most unforgiving way possible. But this isn't performance. This comes from a lived experience of existing in spaces where loyalty was the difference between safety and danger, and then being thrust into an industry where that same loyalty is quietly mocked, repackaged as naivety, and replaced with self-interest dressed up as professionalism. That tension never left. It just found a home in the music. The title is the most deliberate detail on the record. Flowers, in this context, aren't a romantic gesture; they're what gets left at a grave. The image is specific, and the intent behind it is crystal clear: disloyalty has consequences, and the LYCVNS isn't interested in softening that message for anyone.

The band name carries its own mythology. LYCVNS draws on the lycanthrope, a creature defined by pack loyalty and an almost primal, unstoppable rage when that pack is threatened. It's not an aesthetic borrowed for effect. It's the most accurate description the artists found for something real inside themselves: a fury that, once learned to control, became the foundation of everything the project is built on. This is Midwest Beatdown done right. The track is heavy, unrelenting, and completely intentional in the way it dismantles you. LYCVNS doesn't waste time easing you in from the moment it opens; the weight is immediate. Michael Kulakowski's guitar work is crushing across both rhythm and lead, the production is dense and suffocating in the best possible way, and Brad V Earl's drumming hits with the kind of precision that makes breakdowns feel earned rather than cheap. Nothing here is decorative. Every element exists to add pressure, and it does exactly that. Erin Medrano fronts the whole thing with a ferocity that matches the material completely. This is a vocalist who understands the difference between performing aggression and actually embodying it.

Chris Tolliver, formerly of Come Correct, steps in like someone who has been waiting for exactly this kind of track. His presence here isn't a guest appearance in the passive sense. He shows up, takes the thing by the throat, and doesn't let go. Where LYCVNS brings the personal, Tolliver widens the lens, grounding the track in something systemic, pointing at the greed and corruption baked into the structures that govern everyday life, and the way those at the top normalize the damage they cause rather than take responsibility for it. It's a natural expansion of the same core anger, and it fits seamlessly because both threads are ultimately about the same thing: people who abuse power and face no consequences for it.

That thematic alignment is what makes the collaboration feel so cohesive. Tolliver and LYCVNS aren't pulling in different directions; they're escalating the same argument from two different angles, and the result hits harder for it. Every time you think the track has reached its ceiling, one of them pushes it higher. Both artists come from worlds where intensity is the baseline, so there's no adjustment period, no moment where one feels out of place alongside the other. The chemistry is immediate, and the result feels less like two artists working together and more like one unified force with a very specific mission: to make you feel it in your spine. The title "Flowers" deserves a moment of acknowledgment. There's something deliberately confrontational about naming something this punishing after something this delicate. It's the kind of choice that tells you exactly who you're dealing with, artists who are fully aware of the contrast they're creating and leaning into it without flinching. That confidence runs through the entire track.

If "Teeth" introduced you to what LYCVNS is capable of, "Flowers" shows you they're just getting started. Erin Medrano, Michael Kulakowski, and Brad V Earl have built something that, with Tolliver in the mix, stands as one of the more compelling deathcore releases in recent memory, focused, ferocious, and completely uncompromising. Some songs arrive. Some songs hit you before you're ready. "Flowers" hits you before you're ready. And you'll want to run it back immediately.

Go give Flowers a spin now:  “𝙵𝙻𝙾𝚆𝙴𝚁𝚂” 🥀 FEAT. Chris Tolliver 

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