Like some mutant offspring born from a secret affair during Pink Floyd's filming of Live at Pompeii comes Bronze from the international collective known as Crippled Black Phoenix. Featuring ten tracks of music that almost defies classification, Bronze mystifies from the opening notes of the haunting "Dead Imperial Bastard" and never lets up till the very end. With an expanded line-up of musicians who contribute guitars, bass, drums, various keyboards, banjo, effects, samples, and vocals, Crippled Black Phoenix have conjured up one of the more unique listening experiences here in 2016. "Deviant Burials" comes across like a head on collision between Soundgarden, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, and Peter Gabriel era Genesis, the heavy 'Seattle styled' guitar riffs battling serous Hammond organ before the Mellotron kicks in and some wild David Gilmour influenced lead guitar follows in its footsteps. That creepy Pink Floyd element also lurks in the background of the otherwise heavy rocking "No Fun", while the melancholy "Rotten Memories" brings to mind both The Doors as well as Anathema. Prog fans will instantly take to the epic "Champions Of Disturbance (Pt 1 & 2)", as bubbling Pink Floyd/Hawkwind styled keyboard flourishes soar over majestic guitar riffs and gymnastic drum fills during the first half, with the latter morphing into a dramatic hard rock affair punctuated by emotional vocals, heavy guitar riffs and piano. A rousing cover of the Joe Walsh classic "Turn to Stone" is a great surprise, the band again sprinkling some Floyd styled prog all over this hard rock classic, but the real 'meat' of this album comes into play on the final three tracks, "Scared and Alone", "Winning and Losing Battle", and "We are the Darkeners", each one lengthy and allowing for some serious ambience and atmosphere, the chilling keyboards setting the mood and the guitars either soaring or pummeling. Space metal? Perhaps you could call it that, like a bizarre meeting between Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, but it's quite intriguing and ultimately successful.
Bronze is one of those albums where you don't necessarily have many expectations going in but the end result more than surprises and satisfies. Crippled Black Phoenix have come up with a cool formula here, an album easy to recommend to any fan of space rock, psychedelic prog, doom, alternative, and classic hard rock.
Track Listing
1. Dead Imperial Bastard
2. Deviant Burials
3. No Fun
4. Rotten Memories
5. Champions Of Disturbance (Pt 1 & 2)
6. Goodbye Then
7. Turn To Stone
8. Scared And Alone
9. Winning A Losing Battle
10. We Are The Darkeners
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