CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX Sink Into “Vampire Grave”

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX release “Vampire Grave”, the third single from their forthcoming album Sceaduhelm. The track arrives as one of the album’s most immediately compelling pieces, built around a central image of chosen decay and the kind of intimacy that survives only by abandoning the living world entirely.

Listen to ‘Vampire Grave’ now: https://youtu.be/Vu9vXjQ2AsY

Written by Justin Greaves with lyrics by Ryan Patterson, “Vampire Grave” frames disillusionment not as crisis but as conclusion. Patterson’s lyric follows a narrator who has quietly stopped arguing with the terms of existence and arrived, without drama, at an alternative: immortality in death alongside another person, in a grave of their own choosing. The vampire conceit is not deployed for atmosphere alone. It carries a genuine emotional logic, the sense that if there are no winners in life, then permanent withdrawal becomes the only rational act of devotion. The phrase “bloodsick and depraved” sets the register early, and the song does not soften from there.

Patterson, who has collaborated with Justin Greaves and Crippled Black Phoenix across several projects, speaks to the immediacy of the song’s central image: “Vampire Grave was the first song we did together for this album; Justin sent me the music with that working title and I immediately imagined two immortal lovers, blood junkies on an eternal death trip. It’s a barn-burner of a song driven by Justin’s drums and guitar, and perfectly completed by Belinda’s creepy and beautiful backing vocals. It’s one of my favorite vocal performances and I’m excited for people to hear it.”

Belinda Kordic joins Patterson on backing vocals, her presence lending the track a layered intimacy that runs deeper than mere arrangement. The track also features percussion from Robin Tow and synths from Lucy Marshall, building a density that distinguishes it from some of the album’s starker, more skeletal compositions. The result is a track that remains entirely within Sceaduhelm‘s emotional territory while offering a stronger immediate grip than much of the surrounding material.

Sceaduhelm was recorded between 2023 and 2025 at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, Kapsylen Studio in Stockholm, and House Of Foto in Louisville, Kentucky. It was produced by Justin Greaves, mixed by Iver Sandøy at Solslottet Studio in Bergen, and mastered by Magnus Lindberg in Stockholm.

Sceaduhelm is out April 17th via Season of Mist.

Pre-order & pre-save: https://orcd.co/cbpsceaduhelm