Forgotten Gems: Cirith Ungol-Frost and Fire

Liquid Flames Records 1980

Andy's view-

Taking their name from The Lord Of The Rings (it means "Pass of the Spider" apparently) Cirith Ungol's debut album Frost and Fire was universally panned by critics upon it's release in 1980. I'm not sure if it was Tim Baker's raspy vocals or the fact that they didn't sound like heavy metal did at the time. The early 80's saw a lot of bands start to rev up their music and imitate the British metal movement. For a band from L.A. to play music that was more in touch with 70's hard rock and the doom styling of Black Sabbath/Pentagram was off putting enough without the fact that for a heavy metal band they were not very "heavy". Instead they were almost foreshadowing epic/doom metal. Frost and Fire is not perfect. It has miscues and not every idea works. But when things click into place it's one mean mother of a record. Listen to the solo in "A Little Fire" and you get the feeling there was fire in their bellies. "Better Off Dead" is more Nazareth than Black Sabbath but "Maybe That's Why" was epic metal before there was such a thing. Despite little fanfare in 1980 this album now tops a lot of fan's lists as a classic metal album. When looking for suggestions for Forgotten Gems more than a few friends suggested this album. That alone tells you something.

Metal Mark's view-

I actually heard Cirith Ungol's King of the dead (1984) and One foot in hell (1986) long before I heard Frost and fire. Those two later album had much more in common with what was going in metal at the time of their release and both were powerful. When I finally heard Frost and fire I was slightly surprised by the sound, but it definitely clicked with me. The sound is maybe a few years behind when it came out as they sound a bit like a cross between Sabbath, early Judas Priest, Pentagram and some of the rhythms even remind me of early Rush. Songs like the title track and "A little fire" show the bands storytelling ability as they really build the song up rather than shooting their load right away. This is not a band that just rests on the work of others because they certainly bring their own ideas with them as well. "Better off dead" has an odd beginning that probably had many people raising their eyebrows when they first heard it, but the song quickly explodes yet is definitely guided by the band's confidence and vision. The closer "Maybe that's why" comes across almost like a jam that just happened to end up on the album, but I agree with Andy's point about this band being early epic metal and this track is certainly and early example of that. The album has great solos, heavy beats and I love the vocals plus it's even a little quirky at times which works well here. This is a fine album that holds up very nicely three decades after it's release. At the time when the NWOBHM was exploding on the other side of the Atlantic it's good to know that we had a band on this side of the ocean that was churning out strong metal too.