CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX

'Vengeance' by the New Model Army, a hymn to resistance and rebellion, everything is written. 'Self Control', a haunting and introspective version by Laura Branigan, all in softness, like a velvety soup. 'Blueprint' raw, a cry of revolt from a Clash, Rory, from a Fugazi quite simply. 'And That's Sad' with this aerial intro belching out this psychedelic Voivodian sound, a zest of Lacrimosa for the voice. The dark wave then deviant punk structure; the guitar plugged into an amp by the famous Robert Fripp; the annoying and haunting finale, well it's a cover of another group, the NoMeansNo.

'Hammer Song' with Belinda accompanying the acoustic guitar, the accordion, the sound of Alex Harvey is raw, archaic. 'When A Blind Man Cries' we have to remember, it was one of my first slow songs; Deep Purple have been there. 'My Pal' with this riff from Iron Maiden, this title from God quite simply, full of fury. 'Goin' Against Your Mind' by Built To Spill closes on a sound soaked in nervous dark wave then dives into an ambient outro à la Siouxsie, majestic, elegiac. The finale returns to the rudimentary independent rock.

The second album of covers is darker, disparate and is only worth indicating the anchor points that Justin has done well; it shows this raw side.

'We Forgotten Who We Are' wolves, witch sneers, solemn monolithic entry on the piano, which rises into a heavy sound, dark rock swelling on an intoxicating post rock, a melancholy of all beauty. A musical wandering to connect with cold and hard nature, to gain height like the best Oceansize. The final solo enjoyable, moving on this doomy rise; the slap. 'You Put the Devil in Me' cuts short to the point that we would think the record was scratched; a barrel organ then Belinda distant pregnant voice, we are in paradoxes; she screams, she vociferates like this stoner guitar which vibrates endlessly. Floydian post-punk energy if it could exist with a heavy riff hot as an ember. '444' trumpet and unhealthy cinematic air, bass by Harris from Iron Maiden; a text against religion, 444 and not 666. A heavy, tribal, oriental rhythm with a caravan in the distance; a hypnotic mantra, frantic to the limit of phonic and ethnic saturation. 'Goodnight, Europe, Pt. II' for the bewitched piece with Belinda dreamlike, sad, her voice making me think of Lana Del Rey in her suave moments, the sound sticking to your skin with a Dantesque finale until the storm. The primary imprint dates from 2004; the air on a plausible end of the world, its haunting and magnificent sound that smells of Pink Floyd.

'(-)' for the instrumental smelling of Vangelis' work, in the clouds, on the immaculate peaks for the saving interlude after this provocative deluge. 'Song for the Unloved' acoustic guitar, raspy vocals like Nick Cave, vibrant spleen guitar of Anathema. Contained explosion, cinematic effect typical of Floyd, hang me (in my mind) if you don't see; from the harmonic we move on to metallic power with the pads and the guitar. Tribal, eruptive, captivating sound, put into a Dantesque trance. Halfway through and Gregorian chants, the psyche flows freely, a destabilizing jazzy sax before starting again on a hellish rhythm and its dripping whiffs of the best Floyd at its peak; masterpiece of the album. 'Whissendine' with Belinda searching for her words, a bit like Patti Smith; the Olympian sound of the keyboard starts the title with an expressive pad; dark break, psychedelic/stoner latency of a Monkey3 for the pompous, solemn air. A lyrical flight and a last slide vibration before the phrased outro announcing 'Blizzard of Horned Cats' and the piano arpeggio, an intimate atmospheric piece: no way the brutal invading fire, post-hard rock pours out all at once, delivering saturated notes and making the ears swell, intoxicating brass sounds ending in a frenetic bacchanal.

Crippled Black Phoenix did it: commemorate its 20 years of existence by covering tracks from 2007 to 2020 and make us forget the pejorative word of compilation. Essential.

CD1: 'Intro / Incantation for the Different' dark intro to the tribal haka, phrasing of incantation that's good Shane Bugbee, witch, artist is the author. 'Wyches and Basterdz' with Belinda singing on a melancholic doomy base that of the Cranberries and 'Zombie', a title in the dark/cold wave metallic vein, eyeing Soen, Katatonia; heady air chaining with 'Ghostland' continuing on a repetitive mantra in Swedish with a Teutonic air, like end of the world 'Mad Max' or 'The Trial' of Pink Floyd; the sound goes on a Scandinavian folk ersatz where mammoths are hunted! Heavy, dark, cold, austere air. 'The Reckoning' continues, a horn scream, shots and the tune of 'Paint It Black' in the back; it also reminds me of Mission, Killing Joke and The Alarm for that fiddle and the Irish military drums; a male voice for the first time brief, a lively skinned hymn where the hunted risks not being who we believe. 'Bonefire' goes on, an even more languid radio edit title, we are at the limit of post dark rock, it's singular, dynamic, the progressive codes are jostled, it's beautiful! 'Rose of Jericho' concludes the first CD on the post rock title, alchemy of Sigur Ros rock and dark Mono, Explosions In The Sky for the choirs, the stretched notes, the trumpets coming to roar in a musical maelstrom. A prog sound going for the 80s or 70s that goes up, down, it gives chills. 5'30'' and break doom, a bit of The Cult, New Model Army with the Black Noodle Project spirit; it's heavy, aggressive, progressive, on The Cure period 'Disintegration'.

CD 2: 'Blackout77' delves deep into stoner post-rock, heavy doomsday sound, New York power outage and looting. A throwback to the 80s with journalist voice-over, primary doom riff, Killing Joke and Soen in memory and layers of cold-wave synths. 'Down the Rabbit Hole' chained again, we are of course a concept; melancholic guitar arpeggio for a gothic rock where Belinda uses her vibrant Lana Del Rey voice; twilight atmosphere with expressive pads, assured post spleen. 6 minutes and the second phase on Mission, hypnotizing air until the arrival of crows and 'Everything Is Beautiful but Us' continues on the same momentum with a positive musical gap, surprising fresh air at this moment of the album; 'The Pilgrim' follows and changes rhythm, mood; psychedelic, hypnotic, throbbing, swirling guitars, giant. 'I'm OK, Just Not Alright' and boom, fairground organ over tears to stir up trouble; a dreamlike crescendo with an admittedly spleen, slow, modern progressive piece, solemn and apocalyptic; climatic end before 'The Scene Is a False Prophet' for the post-rock, experimental, avant-garde finale reconciling the soft, icy spleen atmosphere with the metallic sound that befits the decade of 2020; orgasmic climb by kamikaze plane, futuristic drones, rare guitar that recalls the cinematic psyche rock label above all; on an adaptation of 'The Sound Of Silence' and a tune à la Pink Floyd 'Echoes' of the 21st century, amen. 'No Regrets*' on the deluxe edition offers a chilling alternative of distilled melancholy sweetness with post core death metal sound, whatever you wish; snub to the music and its drawers that I ardently contest, in short I return to the simple album.

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX has the merit of bringing us to a current sound, seeming to sign the current state of the world. Progressive post-rock with touches of doom, a touch of gothic-melancholy à la Lacrimosa, à Mission; dramatic, dark, macabre musical universes from which clarity tries to extricate itself. A climate tailor-made by Justin to give his voice to the voiceless, animals, left out of this inhuman world. Oxymoron art music, sound of absolute beauty when the ethereal meets the post and merges to hypnotize us, to create new 2020 sound and stand out from yesterday.

A six piece but with many guests so each track has pretty much a different lineup from 4 to 9 performers. We get plenty of samples which are cool but man so much sad music on this one with "When Your Gone" maybe being the toughest one of those to get through. We get the funny "The Northern Cobbler" with that thick accent as he talks about marrying his sister then getting into the drink and so on. Reminds me of that WIGWAM song "Pride Of The Biosphere" or Roger Waters "Small Furry Animals..." song. I skip it unlike those two. "Long Cold Summer" is something I've never experienced here in Canada. Always short and hot but this song is a favourite. Post Rock guitars, vocals then it turns trippy.

That opener is tough with that choir with the deep slow vocals and samples to open. Harmonium too in this lament. "Suppose I Told The Truth" is like a relaxed pop song. My overall favourite might be the closer "Sharks & Storms/ Blizzard Of Horned Cats". Some emotion in this one and it's been interesting because I've given this at least 3 pre-spins before I decided to spend time with it this week and each of those pre-spins had me having a different opinion of this long recording. In the end 3.5 stars seems generous and this certainly has it's moments. Such a talented band but I find "A Love Of Shared Disasters" to be hit and miss.

Top four include the opener "Burnt Reynolds" one of the best song titles I've seen. Very spacey to start as piano, drums, guitar and more arrive before 3 minutes. Check out the male vocal melodies that eventually dominate around 5 1/2 minutes with drums alone helping out and they soon step aside. It all kicks back in and what a contrast! I also really like "Song For The Loved" at around 13 1/2 minutes. You know Roger Waters once said something to the affect that ideas were more important in music than being amazing musicians. This band here has so many ideas, I'm just so impressed. A FLOYD rhythm at one point around 5 1/2 minutes as Gregorian vocals join in. Some awesome guitar late.

My favourite track on here has to be "444" I mean it sounds so good right from the start and just gets better as we get samples and guitar along with cello when it gets heavy. The lyrics for this one were apparently dreamt up. The vocals arrive before 2 minutes. "Human Nature Dictates The Downfall Of Humans" and isn't that the truth. Thankfully there is a God. Just another killer tune with some really good contrasts and repeated themes. Man so much to like about this one and "Night Raider" that you need them both in my opinion.

Check out the song titles like "Born For Nothing", "Onwards Ever Downwards", "A Lack Of Common Sense", "Trust No One" and "I Am free, Today I Perish" so much negativity which makes the opener "Time Of Ye Life" so funny as we get 3 1/2 minutes of teaching from a motivational speaker on how to live a positive life. Reminds me of that recurring skit on Saturday Night Live where buddy talks to himself in the mirror about how great he is and so on. While the guy is speaking here we get sparse and relaxed guitar which continues when he stops as it blends into "Born For Nothing". Percussion is added and eventually it picks up and gets louder. I like this. It settles back around 6 1/2 minutes then builds. Check out the guitar after 9 1/2 minutes. Love the bass after 12 minutes. Somewhere the song changes to "Paranoid Arm Of Narcoleptic Empire" and it continues to be trippy. Synths will join in and then a calm at 14 minutes. The trippy becomes powerful around 16 1/2 minutes then it will wind down.

"Wendigo" is relaxed with sparse guitar but when the guitar steps aside I hear Post Rock. "Bat Stack" is piano and percussion to start then it changes as we get some horns giving a bit of a bluesy feel starting before 2 minutes. A couple of shorter tracks are next starting with rough vocals, accordion, trumpet and more on the first one, followed next by a catchy vocal track that I like. Someone is yelling to open "A Lack Of Common Sense" and there's plenty of noise too before a calm after a minute with picked guitar and reserved vocals. Haunting start to "Trust No One" followed by vocals and a second guitar. The closer is melancholic with piano and atmosphere and it's quite spacey to end it.

Probably rated "I, Vigilante" too low and this too high but for my tastes there's a huge difference in these two albums.

As much as I like Crippled Black Phoenix, I'll admit that I had begun to write them off a bit. Their style of apocalyptic post-tinged prog rock, with frequent touchstones to Pink Floyd, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Ennio Morricone, was unique, and to this day I can't really think of many acts who did the same thing - but it did get a little boring. This, however, is an utterly unexpected breath of fresh air. Although if you squint, you can hear all the same influences that were there before, there's an entirely different focus. This is dark, heavy and almost gothic at times. There are tracks here that are closer to The Sisters of Mercy than Pink Floyd, and some of the guitar tones bring in a subtle metal tinge unheard of on their previous work. For a band that were treading water stylistically, this is a fantastic shot in the arm and already sounds nothing like anyone else in the current scene, which is what CBP were doing at their best.

7.6 (4th listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction

Early Floyd is the obvious influence, particularly on the likes of 'Las Diabolicas', but the very first time I played this the name which kept popping into my head was Johnny Cash, and while this sounds absolutely nothing like him in any way, for some reason the analogy really works. Since their debut 'A Love of Shared Disasters' in 2007, Crippled Black Phoenix have continued to morph and change, and this is yet another exercise in changing perceptions about the band, and is deep mahogany in a world of cheap and throwaway plastic as the depth and emotion contained within are compelling.

Is there a musical term such as Psychedelic Heavy Progressive Rock? If not, we should invent it, in order to define this album. Because Bronze borrows elements from many musical styles and seems influenced by the sound of many bands from different styles. Off the top of my head, I could say that a mix of Pink Floyd with Black Sabbath could describe it somehow. (A fine example is the song Champions of Disturbance).

The thing I always loved about Crippled Black Phoenix is that you never know what to expect with each new release. Same thing happened here. When I listened to the album for the first time, I was really surprised with the long - and unnecessary in my opinion - intro, but right after that, the magic begun!

I will not write more, because there is no reason to do so. Bronze is a very good album, that you definitely give a try! It is a heavy, dark, psychedelic, experimental, progressive and wonderful album!

I cannot give less than 3.0 stars, and I'm not sure if they are enough? (If I could, I would give 3.5 stars) Thank you for reading this piece. :-)