Cirith Ungol

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Cirith Ungol is an American heavy metal band and one of the first in the genre . Her name comes from the book The Lord of the Rings and means 'pass of the spider' (translated in the novel as 'Shelob's lurking').

history

The band was founded in 1976 by singer Tim Baker, guitarists Jerry Fogle and Greg Lindstrom and bassist Michael "Flint" Vujejia in Ventura (California) . During their career they performed with bands like Slayer or Venom . The last concert so far took place in 1991, after which the band broke up. At the beginning of 2016, the band announced their reunion and appeared again in October 2016 at the Frost and Fire Festival at the place of their formation for the first time since their breakup.

Jarvis Leatherby, the front man and bassist of Night Demon, managed to persuade Cirith Ungol to reunion after several years of unsuccessful attempts. Since the former bassist Flint Vujejia was not available, Leatherby also took over his position. In 2017 the band played at the "Keep It True" festival, followed by other appearances that were very well received by the fans, especially because Tim Baker, who had a strong influence on the band with his vocal charisma, did not lose any of his skills despite the long break seems to have.

Unlike many reunion bands, Cirith Ungol did not limit themselves to the live presentation of their old classics, but instead released a single in 2018 and now a complete album with new material ( Forever Black , release: April 24, 2020).

Music genre

Cirith Ungol's music was "initially to be settled in rock ", but became increasingly metallic . According to Jens Groh from Rocktimes, her albums are “all unique, somehow connected to one another and yet as different as it can get”. The name of the band comes from JRR Tolkien , but the band mainly dealt with Michael Moorcock's character Elric von Melniboné , "even if here and there other topics like environmental degradation or such mundane things as racing 180 things over the highway". In addition to the sinister and rather spartan compositions, what was particularly striking was Tim Baker's “very high-pitched, almost screeching siren-like singing”. The style of the band is considered independent; Götz Kühnemund from Rock Hard called it difficult to describe, but compared it in his review of King of the Dead with Trouble , "as both play rather dull and dark music", and called it recommendable for lovers of progressive black metal . Along with Manilla Roads Crystal Logic , the album is one of the most important classics of Epic Metal .

Kühnemund's colleague Holger Stratmann described Baker as an "extreme vocalist" and One Foot in Hell as "another good album [...], which will surely only delight fans of this group".

They themselves described their style as "Gothic Death Rock", but without reference to Gothic Rock or Death Rock .

With the new album Forever Black , Cirith Ungol remain true to their approach from the point of view of the first reviews of not simply repeating themselves, but giving each album a slightly different character. The trademarks of the band, namely the "lively riff tracks" and the "ageless voice of Tim Baker, trembling with charisma and madness" can also be found here.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
I'm alive
  DE 42 11/01/2019 (1 week)
Forever Black
  DE 11 05/01/2020 (2 weeks)
  CH 25th 05/03/2020 (1 week)
  • 1979 - 1979 demo ( demo )
  • 1980 - Frost and Fire
  • 1984 - King of the Dead
  • 1986 - One Foot in Hell
  • 1991 - Paradise Lost
  • 1996 - I'm Alive / Atom Smasher ( Single )
  • 2001 - Servants of Chaos (unreleased and live recordings)
  • 2018 - Witch's Game (Single)
  • 2019 - I'm Alive (Live Album)
  • 2020 - Forever Black

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.cirithungol.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10
  2. ↑ a b c d Jens Groh: Cirith Ungol - King Of The Dead , accessed on June 12, 2013.
  3. ↑ Götz Kühnemund : Cirith Ungol . King of the Dead . In: Rock Hard , No. 7, accessed July 12, 2013.
  4. ↑ Holger Stratmann: Cirith Ungol . One foot in hell . In: Rock Hard , No. 18, accessed July 12, 2013.
  5. ↑ Maximilian Blom: ROCKS 03/2020 .
  6. ↑ Chart sources: Germany