Album Review: Crippled Black Phoenix – Banefyre

Medieval Saga of Modern Rebellion

Prolific post-rockers Crippled Black Phoenix are out for blood with their latest studio album, Banefyre. An Olde English translation of “bonfire,” Banefyre sees Crippled Black Phoenix burning The Establishment to the ground and fanning the flames.

The album opens with “Incantation for the Different” which features spoken word, written and performed by controversial occultist Shane Bugbee. “Steve Jobs told us to think different / That motherfucker didn’t warn us that thinking different, being different, living different, loving different could get us killed / It does get us killed … Now tyrant, watch your world burn.” The track sets the tone for the rest of the album which is a seething indictment of the pervasive inequality exacerbated by the pandemic as well as the persistent persecution of “the different.”

Though sonically medieval, Banefyre captures the air of apocalypse and unabashed hatred of the elite that has entered the zeitgeist since the pandemic. If “Eat the rich” needed a prog rock soundtrack, Banefyre would fit the bill. The album is layered with Gregorian chants and heavily distorted instrumental sections which create an ambiance that is primal, apocalyptic and epic.

Each song blends seamlessly into the next with Belinda Kordic and the band’s newest vocalist, Joel Segerstedt, alternating tracks. A nod to the vocalists’ native Sweden, “Ghostland” is written entirely in Swedish. While the chanting verses loosely translate to “in eternity, we wander,” the song brings to mind the slow, determined march of a mob on their way to storm a castle.

“The Reckoning” begins with nature sounds followed by bugles and gunshots which are quickly answered by power chords and a marching drum beat. The hunted are now the hunters. While Crippled Black Phoenix hails from England, socially conscious listeners in the U.S. are just as likely to find meaning in the anti-Establishment lyrics. In one of the album’s lead singles “Bonefire,” Kordic sings “You root for the rich, condemn the poor / On deaf ears, you ignore / Neither compassion nor goodwill / Sacrificed are the vulnerable.”

Act I of the album ends with “Rose of Jericho,” a 14-minute track which opens with a vivid and dreamlike sequence created by frontman Justin Greaves with an EBow. The sequence could easily stand alone, but is interrupted by the same marching drum beat that carries through the rest of the album. The instrumental sections are strong throughout, but would shine brighter as interludes and outros instead of being randomly interspersed among the songs.

Banefyre is an otherwise compelling album both lyrically and sonically, accomplishing the goal of a visual album without the visuals. The soundscape painted by the album is vivid enough to feel like a lucid dream and is likely to evoke a visceral reaction from the listener. This is especially true in “I’m Ok, Just Not Alright” which begins with the sound of a woman crying over eerie carousel music. Listeners looking to get off the ride, so to speak, are unlikely to find solace in this album which runs confidently towards the flames, instead of away.

After burning it all to the ground, Crippled Black Phoenix sifts through the ashes in the remainder of the album. “Everything is Beautiful But Us” sees nature reclaiming a city destroyed. “These empty streets, poetry / These empty streets, the beauty / In bloom at play / Today’s the day they break away!”

“The Scene is a False Prophet” acts as a kind of a twisted final reckoning. The 15-minute track starts somewhat ironically with melodies from Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” The listener may find it difficult to sit through the progression of doom-like sirens that follow, but will be richly rewarded by the epic conclusion.

Banefyre is true to form for a band proud to be a voice for the voiceless. The 97-minute epic saga is tough to endure, but is likely to be rewarding for prog rock fans or anyone wildly frustrated with the current state of the world. The apocalypse is here, and Crippled Black Phoenix is fighting like hell.