Crippled Black Phoenix

Ellengaest SEASON OF MIST

Avant-gloom anthems born from strife and separation.

Dozens of collaborators have passed through avant-goth postrockers Crippled Black Phoenix during their 16 years as a band, but long-time vocalist Daniel Anghede’s departure last year appears to have been abrupt and acrimonious. Band founder and main songwriter Justin Greaves responded by bringing in several guest singers, including Anathema’s Vincent Cavanagh and Norwegian black metal veteran Kristian ‘Gaahl’ Espedal.

But however troubled its gestation might have been, Ellengaest sounds impressively coherent and expansive, from the Morricone-goes-doommetal epic House Of Fools to the soaring prog-folk symphony The Invisible Past. Standing out among multiple gruff male voices, Belinda Kordic howls like a wounded Nick Cave on the gloomily romantic Everything I Say, and makes a decent but underpowered stab at the vintage Bauhaus single She’s In Parties. Scattered snippets of dialogue from the 1959 documentary The Faces Of Depression set the glum emotional mood, notably in the slow-building Floydian anthem In The Night, its defiant refrain ‘live to fight another day’ channelling backstage drama into musical melodrama. ■■■■■■■■■■