Crippled Black Phoenix to do a special set at Roadburn 2019
Following their mind-warping set on Roadburn’s main stage in 2017, we welcome back the progressive darkness of Crippled Black Phoenix. Next year, the creative vision of multi-instrumentalist Justin Greaves will celebrate its fifteenth birthday, and we’ve still not been able to categorise CBP’s sound. Part post-rock, part psych, part experimental, they’re one of the most ambitious and underrated bands heavy music has produced, injecting their post-everything sound with layers upon layers of brain-boggling instrumentals and all encompassing emotion.
And they never seem to slow down. In the band’s decade and a half career, CBP have released an incredible ten studio records, the latest of which Great Escape is a powerful, treacherous exploration into a the bleakest realms of Justin’s psyche.
“Great Escape was born from a place of resignation to stressful and painful things, like holding my hands up and shouting, ‘I don’t care any more, I just want out of this’,” he told Prog magazine of the latest album.
“This then opened the door to a lot of other topics which relate to this state of mind, and these topics are what fuelled this album. Whether it’s internal struggles, or things in the wide world that make us despair, or wanting to help the voiceless animals escape human tyranny, most people can relate to escapism in different forms.”
Misery and conflict are regular bedfellows of Crippled Black Phoenix, searching for hope within the shadows, overcoming the odds and fighting on. It’s this aesthetic that has seen CBP adopted by fans of metal and prog, finding themselves supporting Converge yet having more in common musically with Pink Floyd. But its this refusal to be categorised and a genre-spanning sound that makes them a Roadburn staple; a band following their own path, their own rules, for their own enjoyment. And ours.
Justin Greaves says: “To say it’s an honour to play Roadburn again is somewhat of an understatement, especially because it was only in 2017 when we played last time. It came as a bit of a surprise too, truth be known, but then talking to Walter about how he sees things and his vision of the 2019 festival, I totally get it and it blows me away that CBP were invited to be part of it.”
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for Walter and what he set out to do all those years ago when I first met him during the early years of Roadburn, and my respect grows more when I hear his words regarding the world of underground music. So yeah, I’m really happy to return of course, and I speak for all of the CBP camp.”
“We are working on ideas and intending to do something special for this appearance… can’t say too much now, but we’ll do some announcing of announcements at some point soon.”
Luke Morton / November 2018
