Crippled Black Phoenix - 200 Tons Of Bad Luck

200 Tons Of Bad Luck

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Tracklist:
1 Burnt Reynolds
2 Rise Up and Fight
3 Time of Ye Life / Born for Nothing / Paranoid Arm Of Narcoleptic Empire
4 Wendigo
5 Littlestep
6 Crossing the Bar
7 Whissendine
8 A Real Bronx Cheer
9 444
10 A Hymn for a Lost Soul
11 A Lack of Common Sense
12 I Am Free, Today I Perished


For a band that has described their songs as "end time ballads" there's certainly a lot of life affirming moments in Crippled Black Phoenix's music. And there should be - with 200 Tons Of Bad Luck clocking in at 1 hour and 20 minutes, it's not going to give you a quick fix. It is however, a grand post rock epic, and well deserving of your time.
200 Tons Of Bad Luck is borne out of a previously released 2 disc collection by CBP- The Resurrectionists, and Night Raider. This record then aims to take the best and most cohesive songs from the two albums and condense it into one. With the aforementioned album length, condensed probably isn't the best way to describe this album, but largely they have managed to select the best cuts from their previous works.

200 Tons... begins with Burnt Reynolds, and an eerie Pink Floyd esque synth in the background. It's properly spooky, it lasts for like a minute and a half, just synth and woodwind. It sets the tone perfectly for the grandeur of what's to come on this record. Some solid bass playing by Mogwai's Dominic Aitchison lead into the very prog rock opening of the record. Even the watery sounding guitar grooves sound like they could be taken from something off Wish You Were Here. A series of melodic chants and vocals make way for this song's glorious climax. There's suprisingly a few almost cheesy moments on this album, but it's never that over done, and it sort of goes hand in hand with the level of end of the world music we're talking about here.
Rise Up And Fight does what it says on the tin. The mournful brooding of the first track gets a swift kick up the arse and we're straight into some four horsemen of the apocalypse guitar chugging.

The 18 minute epic beginning with Time Of Ye Life......sounds as if it was written solely to satisfy my post rock tastes. Emotional old man speech over delayed guitars? Yes plx. A somberly delivered speech is combined with some GY!BE style guitars to create a genuinely emotional track, with words of wisdom courtesy of Evil Knievel. I actually thought it was by some American President before I found out who it was.....it's pretty stirring. There's something about the seriousness/sadness of the music with the speech that just works. Have a listen, anyway. The track develops into what really does sound like an end time ballad, with post rock, prog and folk colliding into a real epic. 18 minutes though....jesus. That's like.....most of a Simpsons episode. Or if you tuned into an episode of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares after 18 minutes.....you'd be pissed. Stick with it though, it'll reward you in the end, and not in the sort of, i'm knackered but i'm glad I can say I stuck with it, kind of way. The fuck yeah, kind of way.
Wendigo gives us a much needed 3:50 song. Yes! A normal lengthed song. But they still haven't found a sense of humour, laying on some truely depressing folk doom. Chances are you didn't start start listening to Crippled Black Phoenix thinking they were the next Flight Of The Concords though, so suckem.
Littlestep isn't spectacular, but it's nice to hear vocals again, as in this case they do lend something to the album. Words, ofc.
Crossing The Bar starts off with charming acoustic picking and an ominous bass drum of death. If Robin Hood had this as his theme tune, he'd get a lot more rEEspect. Before it turned into the touching piano ballad toward the end, after which he'd get beaten up by the tough kids. The violin laden I am Free, Today I Perished plays out the album in suitably victorian style.

200 Tons Of Bad Luck is a great album, and would definetely be my post rock album of the the year so far were it not for a certain local band winning everyones hearts. It's pretty heavy, at the many times previously mentioned one hour and twenty minutes it's not going to give a quick fix. But it's worth taking some time out to savour, it's an emotional album combined with doom laden inspirational instrumentation. It sounds at times like something out of the 19th century, and at others like a Pink Floyd collaboration. What it is undoubtedly though, is a worthwhile work of rock grandeur, an accquired taste, and one that will contstantly reward.

8.8/10