Crippled Black Phoenix
New Dark Age Tour EP 2015 A.D
Release Date: 27 November 2015
Season Of Mist
Review by Cameron Cooper
Filling more than half of your EP’s run-time with a single cover isn’t a particularly conventional move in rock n’ roll, but if there is one thing that can be expected of the UK’s Crippled Black Phoenix, it is the unexpected. Having bewildered critics with the last eight releases, the space doom collective – centred around former Electric Wizard and Iron Monkey skins man Justin Greaves – continue their journey into the sonic deserts of time and space with New Dark Age Tour EP 2015 A.D.
The record is strange, adventurous and at times enthralling, but a little unsatisfying. Following the hypnotic originals Spider Island and New Dark Age, the next 37 minutes of the EP are consumed by the band’s cover of Pink Floyd’s Echoes. While there is certainly nothing wrong with the cover, for a band already so heavily influenced by Floyd, it feels rather redundant, and one can’t help but think the band could have better used the time crafting their own jams.
