From the debut in 2004 till today, Crippled Black Phoenix have been an unsettled rock project around the key drummer Justin Greaves (also of Electric Wizard, Iron Monkey, Teeth of Lions Rule The Divine) with lots of his band mates. Through much experience in some outfits Justin had harboured his own soundscape and enthusiasm for ‘macabre stoner/doomy progressive rock’, which could let every collaborator go the same steady way regardless of such an unsteady formation of the project.
Crippled Black Phoenix made Justin’s ideas more concrete – encouraged especially by Dominic Aitchinson the Mogwai’s bassist – and released their debut album “A Love Of Shared Disasters” from Invada Records, managed by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, in 2006.
“Great Escape” is a deeply personal album. Band leader Justin Greaves has not been shy about his battles with severe depression. A wide range of emotions are explored here – from anger in “Rain Black, Reign Heavy” to forgiveness in “Nebulas,” and everything in between, but the thing with personal albums is they have to connect with the listener, and “Great Escape” fails on this level more often than it succeeds. Crippled Black Phoenix’s brand of dark, melancholic progressive doom is a perfect vessel for these emotions, and lyrically the album works, but as is often the case with CBP, the songs themselves fail to leave their intended mark.
Greaves speaks about Crippled Black Phoenix influences in an interview: “I like Pink Floyd, but I never set out to write something that sounds like them. I try not to be influenced by anything in particular. When I write an album, I don’t listen to anything else. I just do the demos and listen to those and try to get what’s in my head out of my head.”
The opening act will be held by The Devil’s Trade, a one man show whose music is the dust he shakes during this pilgrimage in life.
Crippled Black Phoenix and The Devil’s Trade will be present in Bucharest and Timisoara with shows that are part of “The Perfect Tour of Total Pleasure” .
Tickets: HERE
10 october
Doors open @ 19:00
20:00 – 20:45 // The Devil’s Trade
21:00 – 22:30 // CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX (official)
