Lots of different sounds on “Great Escape” from Crippled Black Phoenix, ranging across Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Danzig, Massive Attack, nine inch nails, Depeche Mode, Genesis, Draconian, Dead Can Dance, 413, Opeth, Mazzy Star, and Slowdive/Mojave 3, with a few different voices present - - including soft male and female vocals, plus a trendy sampling of Alan Watts spoken word lectures in track 2 (Is his stuff in the public domain? I keep hearing him crop up in songs these days).

There are Metal moments on the record, but it still barely qualifies; it’s more of a genre hybrid of Heavy Metal, New Age, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, and Alternative. The majority of the stuff has a great, spaced out, dreamlike quality to it, though. With multiple songs over 10 minutes in length, and many sections of instrumental ambience. I really enjoy some of the progressions of sustained, drawn-out chords and the parts with the busy, rhythmic tom toms.
There's a combination of delicate, meditative peace with tumult and danger here, like a hang glider in a storm. It’s bizarre that a song titled “The Times They Are A’ Raging” could be such a chilled out listening experience, but that’s kind of what Crippled Black Phoenix are about.
“Las Diabolicas” is an interesting specimen, with its “rockin’ out” drums and its trancelike vocals, followed by the lovely, zero tempo, ballad-esque, big sky pace of “Great Escape (Pt I).” These two lead up to the divinely Floydian 13-minute closing opus, “Great Escape (Pt II)” - - which, if we’re being completely honest - - feels a lot like two different excellent songs compounded into one. But the result is still a pretty great song.
I’m guessing they have a lot of candles lit during their band rehearsals. CBP often sound like a mellow, Desert Rock Shoegaze band that hooked up with a Metal drummer, and decided to make it work. And I’d say they’ve succeeded.