Cirith Ungol

There are extremely few Metal bands that garner near-universal approval within the Underground, and Cirith Ungol (pronounced ‘Kee-rith”, not “See-rith”; learn your Sindarin, you bloody savages) are one of those revered few. Their first three albums are widely hailed as essential slabs of molten metal, featuring a powerful, balls-out, doomy aura highlighted by the truly apocalyptic vocal prophecies from Mr. Tim Baker. And then there is their fourth and final album, ‘Paradise Lost’, which many fans never got to hear back in the day due to its rather limited release. Not only did the label fail to put any promotional effort into the album, but the band members themselves have a long, well-documented history of slagging this record, which has likely caused many people to steer clear of it. Add to that the lack of any legit vinyl pressing or CD reissue until 2016 and you get an album that is pretty easy to completely forget about if you’re not obsessive enough to amass their entire discography. But I am here today to try and convince you that, despite all the negative vibes that have surrounded this release over the years, musically it is far from a lost cause. In fact, this is probably the CU album that I play most often. Allow me to explain why I feel this release deserves a better reputation than it is often given.

Yes, the lineup is different, and that results in the first snub, as longtime fans will quickly lament the absence of Flint and Jerry in the string section. The new recruits result in further angst because it is no secret that they brought in some more commercial ideas, which is pretty much anathema to the CU sound. However, the musical performances on the album are solid throughout, so perhaps the newcomers deserve a tad more credit than they receive.

Yes, there are some very odd song inclusions on the album. The issues the band had with the label are well documented, and it did result in some relative duds on the album. Let’s go ahead and get those out of the way, starting at the bottom of the heap and working our way towards the good stuff.

‘Go It Alone’ is credited as a PROPHECY cover; they were reportedly mates of the CU guys, having played with them over the years, and they had Jim Barraza in their lineup prior to his tenure in CU. I guess this was a shout-out to their friends, but the song is bloody awful, being a somewhat “feel-good rocker’ that would have been right at home on a 1989 CD release by some bunch of poodle-headed not-metallers who managed to release one non-starter of an album on a major label who prematurely scooped them up in the wake of GNR’s success and who filmed one lackluster music video that got played exactly three times on weekday afternoons sandwiched in-between Richard Marx and Salt-n-Peppa tracks (I’m looking at you, HEAVENS EDGE).

‘Heaven Help Us’ is another track that is just jarringly out of place on a CU record. This one is actually a decent track, but it’s just not CU material; it’s like listening to the METALLICA cover of ‘On the Road Again’; decent tune, but not at all what you want to hear that band trying to perform.

Yet another cover is included in the form of ‘Fire’ by THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN. In theory, THIS was indeed a good cover choice for CU, except that the execution just isn’t there. They play the song at a very plodding pace, and ironically they seem to lack any fire whatsoever and instead just go through the motions. As a fan of the original, I was always pretty disappointed in this attempt.

Next up is ‘The Troll’. Now this is a bona fide CU type of song, not a weird cover choice or an out of place SoCal rocker. But the song falls flat. It plods along, has zero chorus, and ends rather abruptly.

At this point I’ve trashed four songs, which is almost half the record, and you’re probably wondering why the hell I tried standing up for this album way back in the intro. Fear not, for all is not lost; the remaining five songs are without a doubt some of the finest tracks the band ever laid down.

Album opener ‘Join the Legion’ is an incredible way to start things off. It has all the trademark CU heaviness you could want with a strong, anthemic vibe that really does make you want to grab your homemade Mad Max body armor and fall in among the horde of minions sweeping across the forsaken landscape as Tim & company lead the final assault upon the last bastions of civilization as the Sun explodes.

Track 5 delivers ‘Before the Lash’, which takes all of about 10 seconds to wash away the odd taste of tracks 2-4 and reassure you that things are getting back on track. A grindy, heavy, take-no-prisoners CU classic.

The album closes with the defining trilogy that cements this album as being worthy of sitting at the feet of ‘King of the Dead’ and ‘One Foot in Hell’. ‘Chaos Rising’ has a quicker pace at times that adds an edgy tension to portions of the song. The track is longer, (8+ minutes), and the band takes their time to weave their weird tale, slowly building to a terrific climax (chaos rising indeed!) that leads into ‘Fallen Idols’. This one slows things back to a crawl while cranking the heaviness to eleven. This song proves that if ever a band were to play the soundtrack for Armageddon, it really must be ‘UNGOL!

Closer’ Paradise Lost’ is one of my favorite metal anthems of all time. It has a punishing, bludgeoning beat that slowly propels this marching dirge forward towards oblivion. It hooks you immediately and drags you along its slithering, twisting path. This track could have been on ‘One Foot in Hell’ except it has half the speed and twice the grandeur of anything from that opus. Tim’s howls are truly unearthly, and the buildup is beyond incredible. An even better version of this track can be heard among the demos included on the band’s ‘Servants of Chaos’ anthology. In comparing the two versions, I can understand the band’s frustrations with the track being somewhat shortened and cleaned up for the album. But I think it’s important to note that even the version on the album is incredibly good and should not be written off just because it’s not as good as the demo take.

To summarize, the album breaks down like this: 2 weak inclusions that are very out of place, 2 songs that are legit CU material but are just not particularly good, and 5 tracks that are as godly as anything the band ever released. The end result is that The Good far, far outweighs The Bad on this album (hell, even ‘Thundersteel’ has two duds on it), and I am more than happy to skip a few tracks in order to hear these five slabs of pure, apocalyptic, doomed-out metal as only CU can deliver. As such, I think the metal underground is long overdue to move this record out of the Lost & Found bin and give it a place right beside the band’s other hallowed recordings.

Alles hängt wohl am Gesang von Tim Baker. Wer ihn mag, wird CIRITH UNGOL wahrscheinlich als eine der besten US-Metal-Bands aller Zeiten feiern, wer mit seiner extremen Stimme nicht klarkommt, kann im Regelfall mit CIRITH UNGOL nichts anfangen. Schon die drei Vorgänger-Alben, vor allem das grandiose Debut-Album "Frost and fire" zementierten eine Legende. Die Covergestaltund von Michael Whelan unterstrich noch die genialen Kompositionen. "Paradise Lost" war keinen Deut schwächer. "Chaos rising" oder der Titelsong sind mit das stärkste was je im US Metal fabriziert wurde. Die Gitarrenläufe mit vielen verspielten Wendungen in den längeren Songs waren hier noch ausdrucksstärker als auf den Vorgängern, vielleicht auch wegen der etwas besseren Produktion. Trotzdem blieb das mystische in der Musik erhalten. Dazu Tim Bakers Gesang, der jeden Ton "lebt". Die Coverversion "Fire" schlägt das Original, welches ja durchaus auch ziemlich gut ist. Leider ging die Scheibe zum Veröffentlichungszeitpunkt ziemlich unter, da das Label mehr oder weniger regional arbeitete und nur dank enthusiastischer Importeure die CD überhaupt nach Europa kam. Heute gehört "Paradise lost" natürlich zu den Meilensteinen des Heavy Metal.

Alltime classic mystic Metal with the legendary voice of Tim Baker. If you can stand his variety of screams and singing you will love the band! The coverart from Michael Whelan is the perfect special to give a classic the right presentation!