“Cirith Ungol always seemed mysterious and enigmatic to me as a metalhead growing up in the 80s. Their earliest output sounded like it came from a bygone age when Iron Butterfly and Alice Cooper were in their primacy, and no one else sounded anything like them. They were the most cult of bands and that made them all the more interesting. From the clumsy acid rock meets metal of 81s Frost and Fire to 84s massive, doomy, and epic King of the Dead, there was just something odd and fascinating about them. 1986s One Foot in Hell was more traditionally metal but the band’s unique character remained in full force. After a 5 year absence, they dropped the lackluster Paradise Lost and then vanished completely. Thus concluded the strange case of Cirith Ungol. Or so we thought.” No one expects the Cirith Inquisition!
