ALBUM REVIEW: Great Escape – Crippled Black Phoenix
Few band names spring to mine that are as poetic, or as prophetic of a band’s sound, as CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX. Summarising themes of bleakness, fragility, sorrow and a loss of a former self is a canny move considering lynchpin and band leader Justin Greaves uses albums like Great Escape as a means to channel and confront his darkest moments. Those well versed in their British extreme metal might know Greaves from his stints behind the kit for filthy sludge merchants IRON MONKEY and satanic pornography soundtrack producers ELECTRIC WIZARD, but it’s CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX that has been his main focus for the last fourteen years. Joined by a revolving cast of session musicians and contributors, the scope and grandeur of the work Greaves et al produce is cinematic not just in it’s score-like nature, but in the sense of collaboration, of many hands working under a single auteur’s vision to produce something of weight.
Great Escape then is no exception to this. From the shimmering atmospherics of the initially distant You Brought It Upon Yourselves, with its Allan Watts sample and building tension courtesy of ’80s sci-fi style synth layers, we move into To You I Give that phases with looping, bluesy guitars and wearied vocal drifts, inured with a sense of melancholia that persists amongst plodding toms and bright piano before beginning to soar.
Uncivili War (pt I), although there’s no part two on this record, bleeds in with strings, chasing the tail of the previous track, swelling with organs and slow, plodding drums. Madman rumbles with flatulent synths, grinding out at an inexorable pace with no little hat tipping to NINE INCH NAILS, its heaving layers speaking of meticulous construction. Times, They Are A Raging eases in with breathy atmospherics and vulnerable clean vocals, widening out into skittering drums and sombre bass before the pace whips up, harder edged riffing and a screaming guitar solo evoking KILLING JOKE at their best.
Rain Black, Reign Heavy jangles wearily yet brightly, a meditative pace and slow drum stomp the anchor point around which spirals of noise and vocals flit. Slow Motion Breakdown roils with angst, blaring synths and overlapping guitar solos keeping the listener on edge, with nary a hint of anything ‘slow motion’. Nebulas skips along with a weirdly uptempo gait, all softly rolling drums and lush vocals, before Las Diabolicas bursts into a life full of intense samples, tom heavy drums, needling guitars and robotic vocals.
Bringing the curtain down slowly, Great Escape (pt I) quavers with almost choric chanting and chiming guitars, moving as through treacle with a stately waltz, wistful keys adding a gentle airiness before bold brass sweeps away to evoke a western sound track, a triumphant homecoming. Great Escape (pt II) wobbles with theremin before lapsing into a sultry groove, metronomic drums and spiralling synths buoying the smooth guitar breaks. Vocals are subdued by this point, guitars endlessly echoing into finality, opening out into a sprawling instrumental and dexterous riffing that serves as softcore guitar porn.
When listening to some bands, there’s a definite sense of spontaneity, of riffs and ideas born ‘in the moment’. Not so here. Each track has been carefully cultivated, the work of a composer rather than a rockstar, layer after layer added, instrumentation alien to the rock arsenal used in tandem to weave an emotive and impressive tapestry. While this won’t be to everyone’s taste, and the dynamics shifts are never truly drastic (we may reach dour and despondent, but we never reach truly crushing depths), Great Escape proves to be just that.
Rating: 7/10
Great Escape is out now via Season of Mist.
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