Search - Cirith Ungol :: Frost & Fire/King of the Dead

Most underated metal album of all time!

06/15/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This classic is what metal is all about, fast guitars, a bass player that plays instead of just keeping a beat, and a polished sound that never sounds lame,(like most metal bands of the 80's). This CD is two discs in one with King of the Dead being the better, not that Frost & Fire is bad, in fact its excellent, but CU shines with tunes like "Atomsmasher" and "Master of the Pit". In my opinion it dosent get any better for the true metal fan. I would love for the original lineup to get back together, everyone else is..."

Truly inspired silliness.

Robert P. Beveridge | Cleveland, OH | 06/29/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Cirith Ungol, Frost and Fire/King of the Dead (One-Way, 1995)After being out of print for many years, One-Way Records got the license to release a two-albums-on-one-disc retrospective of the first two Cirith Ungol albums, Frost and Fire and King of the Dead (originally on Metal Blade Records in 1981 and 1984, respectively; Metal Blade also did CD re-releases in 1999). When these two albums came out, I was a huge fan. Garven and I used to trade demos back in the mid-eighties... in any case, I was rather surprised recently to be wandering through the 'net and come across an assertion the NME readers had rated the band's third album, One Foot in Hell, the worst metal album of all time. I mean, come on. Tim Baker's voice is (to say the least) an acquired taste. The lyrics are intensely cheesy, but what do you expect from a band whose output is based on fantasy novels (which are pretty cheesy in the first place)? So I had to dig these out again and give them a listen... except, whoops, I sold them on ebay. Okay, so I went and got the CD re-issue, hoping idly that the band, when remastering, had decided to add the vocal track to "Maybe That's Why." Nope. (They were kind enough to include the lyrics on the original sleeve, though, so you could at least sing along in your head.)So are Cirith Ungol the worst metal band ever? Oh, please. Try listening to Raging Slab or D. A. D. sometime. Still, they weren't the greatest, either. The music is sometimes less than tight, and Tim Baker really does sound like a dying horse. Then there was the "Maybe That's Why" vocal-track gaffe. In other words, Cirith Ungol is not for everyone. But for hardcore metalheads or those on a nostalgia trip, there's a good deal to like here. Cirith Ungol basically sound like yet another listenable, capable metal band who got the shaft because the production values on the albums had about enough of a budget to buy a couple of loaves of bread (in nineteen eighty-five dollars).But the fans never cared. It was all about Elric, from the Michael Whelan album covers to the admittedly cheesy lyrics. Well, okay, most of it was about Elric. There were some oddly out-of-place love songs (including "Maybe That's Why") on Frost and Fire, most likely (their disappearance corresponded with his) penned by the band's original guitarist, Greg Lindstrom, who disappeared before King of the Dead (and no one in the band would tell me what happened to the guy; I still don't know if he found his way into another band, is working for the post office, or what). Freed of the whole love-song thing, the band could get down to serious fantasy (okay, seriously cheesy fantasy. "Finger of Scorn?"). They even included a cover of "Toccata in D minor." How much more high-fantasy can you get? Good stuff... if you're into that sort of thing. ***"