Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We may be the stars of our own film, the ones who write our own biography, but we must always ensure that we never believe for single minute that our souls are the focus of the galaxy, we can visit and enjoy the company of the House At The Centre Of The Universe, but we must understand that we are guests, never the owners.
Welcome additions to Pitch Black Records, Australian Progressive Rock/Metal band Flitcraft come hurtling out of the cosmic gates with a flourish and a temperament to match in their brand new album, House At The Centre Of The Universe. An album of industrial supremacy, of finding that even in the dying embers of isolation the striking of inspiration can appear out of nowhere, and that if we refuse to take a step forward into the mansion, we will never found out what lays beyond each closed door that wants to be investigated.
A quick, but substantial follow up to 2022s Our Long Journey To The Middle, sees Flitcraft’s Phillip T. King, Zac Halpin, and Jack Phillips not only open the doors in this strangely compelling hybrid house, but take an axe to the locks…Johnny may not be shouting out he’s here, but he is growling to the owners demanding with insight to see the fortune in the attic and the mysteries in the basement.
The beauty of the album lays in its structure, the art of the Progressive’s narrative weave to bring forth a concept album. Its aural tale is heightened by tracks such as Earth Is Not A Perfect Sphere, Chrysalistless (Uly’s Lament), Smoko With Sisyphus, and The Pyre of John McDonald, and in the finest appreciation of the form are songs that can be enjoyed as stand alone comments on the fundamentals of the universe, or as a whole, a deep dive into the plot and chronicles of the human alien hybrid child.
It is an intense step taken, from the psych-rock of Mr. King’s band Butterfly to this new, strange and wonderful music description, and one that is heartening, for there is nothing finer than finding a once thought abandoned house, and discovering the future that dwells inside. House At The Centre Of The Universe is a fine addition to this great band’s discography, a house with many rooms, many secrets waiting to be uncovered; open the door, tale a step inside, the future is waiting for you. Ian D. Hall