
Servile Sect - Stratospheric passenger [Sounds of Battle & Souveir Collecting - 2007]Stratospheric passenger blasts the listener off on a fuzzed-out, epic, psychedelic & sometimes grim trip into strange star systems with it’s mix of prog rock, indie guitar noise, black metal & post-rock. This is at it’s most effective as one long trip as spacey and dramatic fuzzed guitar scapes paint mental images of melding star constellations or strange technology advance buildings floating in vast alien skies. Black metal vocal growls bellow seemingly in another space pod like a crazed ex-crew mate trying to breaking and consume the crew. We sweep into strange hallucinogenic cannons of slowed and harmonic clear/ acoustic guitar, or down into wire and circuited board lined bunkers of lo-fi/ weird electronica before once more either falling into guitar feedback richness or sailing up into epic post rock-ism as the space ship once more whizzes off into the stars. An different and atmospheric take on the whole post black metal thing that takes you on a varied and captivating ride to haunting & sometimes grim star systems. It’s just a pity that it only nudges in just over the half an hour mark , lets hope Servile Sect make a more epic long form album- because there’s surely the elements here to do it.      Roger Batty
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