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| Artist..: Crippled Black Phoenix |
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| Album...: Banefyre |
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| Genre...: Rock | Label...: Season of Mist |
| Year....: 2022 | Cat.No..: |
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| R.date..: 2023-07-22 | S.date..: 2022-09-09 |
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| Source..: WEB (24bit) | Encoder.: libFLAC |
| Bitrate.: 2782kbps avg. | F.Rate..: 96.0kHz |
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| http://open.qobuz.com/album/wfnbyd347646a |
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| Disc 1 / 1 |
| -------- |
| |
| 01. Incantation for the Different 2:48 |
| 02. Wyches and Basterdz 4:56 |
| 03. Ghostland 5:43 |
| 04. The Reckoning 6:48 |
| 05. Bonefire 4:36 |
| 06. Rose of Jericho 13:46 |
| 07. Blackout77 7:36 |
| 08. Down the Rabbit Hole 10:33 |
| 09. Everything is Beautiful But Us 4:35 |
| 10. The Pilgrim 6:19 |
| 11. I'm Ok, Just Not Alright 10:05 |
| 12. The Scene is a False Prophet 15:12 |
| 13. No Regrets 4:29 |
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| |
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| (2022.1MB) 01:37:26 |
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| Banefyre, the new release from prog/post rock group Crippled Black |
| Phoenix, begins in an odd manner. Opening track ôIntro/Incantation For The |
| Differentö starts with what is supposed to be chanting, but instead sounds |
| like how you respond when a dentist named Joe asks you how your first year |
| at college went. From there the opening shifts to spoken word segments |
| that sometimes work, but more often they border on unintentionally funny. |
| See the weird emphasis in the sentence ôBorn with a silver spoonàup your |
| ASS!ö for an example. Eventually the proper songs start playing and I can |
| forget everything thatÆs happened so far. Sort of. |
| |
| The second track on the album and the unfortunately named ôWyches And |
| Basterdzö (more on these song names later) enthralled me from first |
| listen. Crippled Black Phoenix cast a spell and cause their listener to |
| wander about in a trance as the music hypnotically pulses through space. |
| Banefyre sounds like the soundtrack of a dream. The songs have repetition |
| and tied-together themes that sometimes remain buried under layers of |
| vocals and instruments. Banefyre presents itself murky upon first listen, |
| and remains intentionally murky after a dozen listens. |
| |
| Banefyre is over ninety minutes long. That is excessive quantities of |
| music. IÆve wavered on how I think of the length of this album. On first |
| listen, I barely noticed as the sounds of Crippled Black Phoenix threw me |
| back and forth between enchanting hymn-like music and jarring missteps |
| that made me question my sanity. After that, the length felt excessive and |
| tiring. Finally, the indulgence and stretched-out nature of Banefyre made |
| sense as a part of what the band was going for. While I do think this |
| record is too long, IÆm not sure it would have worked as a shorter |
| experience. I donÆt know exactly how Crippled Black Phoenix created a |
| record that is simultaneously way too long and barely long enough, but |
| they somehow managed. |
| |
| Crippled Black PhoenixÆs vocals are beautiful and varied. The recordÆs |
| atmosphere and songwriting remind me of a combination of Gazpacho and |
| Oceanic-era Isis. The performances on Banefyre, outside of where the band |
| intentionally stubs their collective toe on a table leg, are impeccable. |
| The band matches the mood of their writing at all times, whether through |
| moments of swelling sorrow or simple and questioning anger. They do a lot |
| with a little. |
| |
| Unfortunately, Crippled Black Phoenix dare to ask the question that few |
| other bands will even think of: How bad can the song titles of an album be |
| before they begin to negatively impact the quality of the music? After |
| ôWyches And Basterdz,ö You have other wonderful song titles such as |
| ôBonefire,ö ôBlackout77,ö and lower-back-tattoo-worthy names such as ôNo |
| Regretsö and ôThe Scene Is A False Prophet.ö These donÆt match the tone of |
| the music at all, and they actively derailed my listening experience |
| whenever I remember that they exist. The music is serious stuff with huge |
| and dark themes, but the band name, album name, and song titles all make |
| me think that this band is trying to hide their emotional strength from |
| the unworthy. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but if you have |
| the best book ever written with a cover consisting of a spray-painted dick |
| and nothing else, that will shade how you read the damn book. |
| |
| Too many moments on Banefyre, like the beginning of ôThe Reckoning,ö not |
| only donÆt need to happen, but are actively distracting. Part of how |
| Banefyre works is its absurd excessiveness, but that ends up being a crown |
| of thorns. So much of this album feels like biding time. When the payoff |
| works, thatÆs fine, but for tracks like the intro, I felt like I was stuck |
| in a bad Dr. Suess book that wouldnÆt end. |
| |
| I donÆt know if Crippled Black Phoenix have made a great album. IÆm not |
| even convinced that they made a good album, although I enjoyed Banefyre |
| enough to rate it well. I do know that they made a supremely interesting |
| album, and took many creative risks in doing so. I recommend that anyone |
| with even a passing interest in post-rock pay attention to Banefyre. You |
| may hate it, but it will fascinate you and demand your attention. |
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ixxu!imp