Victorian trad metallers Flitcraft – the brainchild of sometime Butterfly and Galaxy vocalist/guitarist Phillip T. King – are dedicated to exploring the more psychedelic fringes of the metal genre, and on debut full-lengther Our Long Journey To The Middle, that’s just what they do over the course of eight tracks of never-less-than-interesting and at times downright exciting music.

Opener Stranger Street announces the band amidst an all-guns-blazing fanfare of late seventies Judas Priest; if you’re reading Sentinel Daily, there’s a fair chance you’ll agree that that’s a pretty good place to start, and King, who possesses a nice line in Halfordesque screams when the spirit moves, impresses both as a singer and a six stringer from the get go.

In an interview with this very organ a few weeks ago, King, when prompted, described his music as being somewhat akin to ‘Kansas playing British Steel‘, and there is a feel of the pomp rock Gods present here, especially on the stately and very epic closer, Asleep In The Sand, which closes the album in grandiose style; not only that, it leaves the listener wanting to go straight back to the start and do the whole thing again, which is always a good sign.

At it’s most accessible – the fourth track here, Bed of Spiders, maybe – Flitcraft plough a simpler, catchier furrow, signalling that this is a band that can turn it’s hand to most aspects of the heavy metal spectrum; But metal it is, undoubtedly, and even on this track the listener will detect traces of occult metallers Mercyful Fate making themselves known in the vocal harmonies and memorable, whistle-worthy guitar parts. Metal like it used to be made – just how we like it here at the ‘Daily…

Good stuff, then, and certainly stuff that we here at Sentinel Daily are happy to recommend to lovers of good heavy metal everywhere – if that’s you, you need to investigate this album at your earliest convenience.

Our Long Journey To The Middle releases on February 4th.