Cirith Ungol – One Foot In Hell

1. Blood And Iron
2. Chaos Descends
3. The Fire
4. Nadsokor
5. 100 mph
6. War Eternal
7. Doomed Planet
8.
“King Of The Dead” was an album that totally blew me away the first time I heard it, and continues to do so today. It’s a monumental epic, flowing with dark atmosphere, apocalyptic imagery, and ‘s unique brand of doomy metal (compared to Black Sabbath usually, but that’s not entirely accurate), infused with a bit of psychedelic and progressive rock and topped off with Jerry Fogle’s emotive guitar work, Tim Baker’s banshee wailing, and the powerhouse rhythm section of Flint and Robert Garven, who came together to make the band a unique assemblage of talent, as each could have easily led his own band through sheer distinctiveness and mastery of his position.
In many ways, “” is a continuation of “King Of The Dead”, but also condenses it. It is worth noting that although both albums feature eight tracks, “” is a full 10 minutes shorter. One can correctly guess from this that the arrangements are thus stripped pretty bare. There are no acoustic passages like in “Finger Of Scorn”, no extended lead breaks like in “Master Of The Pit”, and no instrumental classical interpretations like “Toccata In Dm”. While the absence of such elements are somewhat missed (especially the extended lead breaks! Fogle remains one of the real greats of metal guitar), especially because the band was able to execute them so well and helped create the distinctive feel and experience of “King Of The Dead”. In fact, at first I was somewhat disappointed in this record because of that. However, it soon becomes apparent that this is indeed ‘s most metal album to date, thanks indeed to this stripped down aesthetic. Perhaps a contributing factor to this is the absence of Greg Lindstrom, who wrote most of the band’s early material, and despite having left before “King Of The Dead” was recorded, helped write most of that album. Despite that, this is a lean, mean album, a muscular affair unlike any other by . And as further listens reveal, this still retains the key elements to their greatness, the atmosphere of evil and destruction lurking just around the corner, and more simply, killer heavy metal riffs.
Song-wise, there aren’t any real highlights, as the length and new approach to songwriting makes for a very consistently excellent listen, from the faster opening cut “Blood And Iron” with its gang shout chorus through slow burning stompers like “Nadsokor” and “Doomed Planet”, sometimes trading off between tempos. “100 MPH” is the odd song out, dating from the 1970s and noticeably more like something from “Frost And Fire” and lyrics focused being a kick ass metal band (which ring true coming from them). On a slightly humorous note, an original demo recording of the song circa 1978-9 on “Servants Of Chaos” has the second line sung as “we’re the boys who play it,” while on this version they refer to themselves as “the men who play it”. Quite a bit of time had passed indeed for the band, as they had been at it almost 10 years before their debut. “War Eternal” has a stand out solo by Fogle, the only one here that really harks back to the glory of the middle section of “Master Of The Pit”, though each lead on the album is a small masterpiece as usual for him.
Arrangements aside, the element that suffers most from Lindstrom’s absence is the lyrical department. Though sometimes there was less “mature” material like “Better Off Dead” or “Edge Of A Knife” from their first album (not including the ultimate teen angst anthem “What Does It Take”!), they also came up with some very effective verse with powerful imagery on songs like “Frost And Fire”, “I’m Alive”, “Finger Of Scorn”, and “King Of The Dead”. Now, the lyrics are simpler and somewhat less imaginative when taken on their own. In the context of the music, the dark imagery is still ver