Heavy Metal Time Machine

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Cirith Ungol-Servants of chaos

Metal Blade
2011

This is a re-issue of a compilation of rare and unreleased stuff, demos, live songs and other assorted material from Cirith Ungol. In case you were living under a rock in the 80's Cirith Ungol were one of the absolute best American metal bands of all time. Yes, I said that and I stand by it. They formed years before finally releasing their debut "Frost and fire" in 1981 and it was the first of their four studio albums. These guys were a blend of the likes of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, early Rush and others. Yet there is no doubt they developed their own sound and really establish themselves as not just a solid band, but as a rather unique sounding act during their run. This album has 31 tracks and we get a lot of material that will give you a taste of what was so great about this band. Which is the heavy riffs, the controlled pacing, the quirky vocals and just their stellar ability to create interesting moods. Even live they excelled as you get hear on the handful of live songs included on this collection. The album also has some odd ball choices too. We get some seriously under produced tracks that show promise, but lack the attention to detail fans have come to expect from at least their first three studio albums. Towards the middle of the collection there are several tracks that sound like noodling around. These tracks had me thinking the guys were jamming around one night and someone switched on a cassette player and they poked around for a few minutes. Not that it isn't worth a listen, but these few tracks are certainly for the die hard fan and even then I doubt most people would want to hear these songs more than twice at the most. Still out of 31 tracks the bulk of the material is a treat for fans and more than enough to convince those unfamiliar with them about what was special about these guys.

Labels: 2011, Cirith Ungol

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

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.

Labels: Cirith Ungol, Forgotten Gems