Band: Crippled Black Phoenix
Website: www.crippledblackphoenix.co.uk
Label: Season of Mist Records (2018)
Rating:
Great Sounding Modern Progressive Rock Style!
The Great Escape is studio album number ten for Crippled Black Phoenix since the
band’s early formation back in 2004. This seventy-three minute disc starts off with some dreamy, spacey synth keyboard sounds performed
underneath a series of spoken-word clips including some Bruce Dern from one of my favorite movies Silent Running. This opening track
rolls right into the next, a nine-minute affair that takes it’s time to get underway with some pleasant repeating guitar riffs before
launching into a series of powerfully flamboyant and bombastic guitar chords all of which leads into to the song proper. This is the
music of Crippled Black Phoenix, ever shifting dynamically, ever changing structurally, and ever evolving musically. They incorporate
elements of Space-Rock, Stoner-Rock, Psychedelia and more all coming together in a thoroughly Progressive Rock sound. Fans of bands
such as Pineapple Thief and Porcupine Tree will know what I mean and if you enjoy those bands, well add Crippled Black Phoenix to
your favorites list. These eleven tunes some short [3:00], some long [13:00] all run the musical gamut in terms of proggy elements
and there is a lot to enjoy from start to finish. One minute they’re big, bold and dramatic with grand musical crescendos and then
around the next corner they are just as likely to put forward a more Spacey, Ambient feel. The variety really works well together.
It may not be your father’s Prog, but it is none-the-less a great sounding modern progressive rock sound. Recommended.
