A Crippled Black Phoenix album is always difficult to approach. The issue is you never get the same line up twice, apart from the ever-constant Justin Greaves.

This means albums ranged from some of my all-time favourites (I, Vigilante) to those that are just OK (Bronze)   

It’s a big old album of over 90 minutes with only 13 songs but it appears Banefyre is in the former category.

The opening track, Incantation for the Different, should immediately put off the casual listener consisting of a monologue about witches and Satan!

Ghostland with its ominous chanting and slow drumbeats sounds downright pagan and likely to summon the dead which I guess is the point  

The slow burning epic Blackout77 shows the best of Crippled Black Phoenix - full of brooding atmosphere, samples and pummeling drums.

Even the fairground organ from the earliest albums makes a brief return.

With three tracks exceeding 10 minutes there is plenty of time to indulge instrumentally and whilst sonically different, the shadow of Pink Floyd still hovers as large as it has ever done over this band. 

Put aside some time and indulge yourself in one of their best albums.