"A terrific primer for anyone unfamiliar with their crepuscular catalogue": Crippled Black Phoenix revisit the past on The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature

The 20th album from Underground linchpins Crippled Black Phoenix comes with a second disc of covers

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Crippled Black Phoenix: The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature cover art
(Image: © Season Of Mist)

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Crippled Black Phoenix have spent the last two decades wilfully lurking on music’s darker fringes, the missing link between Paradise Lost and Pink Floyd. Comfortably glum, basically.

Released on their 20th anniversary, The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature features seven re-recorded tracks from the early part of their career. While it’s hardly busting out the birthday streamers, it’s a terrific primer for anyone unfamiliar with their crepuscular catalogue.

Crippled Black Phoenix - "444" (Official Audio) - YouTube Crippled Black Phoenix -
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444 and Goodnight Europe Pt 2 are tweaked rather than overhauled by core duo Justin Greaves (various instruments) and Belinda Kordic (vocals) plus a rotating cast of backing musicians, adding both a rawer edge and an extra shot of grandeur.

The highlight is Song For The Unloved, a 14-minute blowout that rips off at least four Pink Floyd songs and gets away with it. It comes with a companion covers album, Horrific Honorifics Number Two, featuring morose makeovers of songs by New Model Army, Deep Purple and 80s singer Laura Branigan among others. Cute, but not a patch on their own songs.

Dave Everley
Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.