AN NCS INTERVIEW: CIRITH UNGOL

 Interviews  No Responses »
Oct 032023
 


photos by Peter Beste

(Cirith Ungol continue a strong resurgence with a new album set for release on October 20th by Metal Blade Records, and to help pave the way we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of the band’s drummer and co-founder Robert Garven.)

Since being formed in 1971, Cirith Ungol has remained one of most long-running heavy metal bands on Earth. They fought for their place under the sun and recorded four full-length albums during their first two decades, but disappeared almost unnoticed in 1992.

The band’s comeback in 2015 was a blast, but they didn’t just gather to play just a few reunion shows, and the new album Forever Black appeared in 2020. They didn’t waste time during the pandemic, and the EP Half Past Human (2021) came out first.

Now Metal Blade Records will be releasing the band’s new work, Dark Parade.  After all those years the band includes two original members who stood at its foundation in 1971 — Greg Lindstrom (guitars, keyboards) and Robert Garven (drums). Tim Baker (vocals) joined them in 1976, and Jim Barraza (guitars) came to Legions of Chaos in 1988. Jarvis Leatherby (bass) is the youngest member of the band, but he played a significant role in Cirith Ungol’s resurrection in 2015.

The flame of good old and a bit doomy heavy metal shall burn! And Robert Garven himself found some time to speak about Dark Parade and the stories behind him. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2020’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9): CIRITH UNGOL, AETERNAM, ETERNAL CHAMPION

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2020  1 Response »
Jan 162021
 

 

CLEAN SINGING ALERT!

This past week I missed two days in the rollout of this list, for reasons explained when I was able to resume it. I also mentioned that I might try to catch up this weekend, et voila!

As the alert warns you, or maybe entices you, all three of today’s selections involve singing, and thus run counter to the rule in our site’s title. But as regular NCS visitors know, that’s never been an iron-clad rule. We have always made exceptions where exceptions are well-earned, and they are in the case of these songs. Plus, I found these songs highly infectious, so much so that I could not in good conscience omit from this list. (And these won’t be the last partially or wholly clean-sung songs to make the list.)

CIRITH UNGOL

Reunions and come-backs are a whole lot more miss than hit, but holy shit, have Cirith Ungol been hitting it out of the park since they came back together after almost 20 years of inactivity. Along with some great live shows, their 2018 single “Witch’s Game” was a sign that the band still had it. And last year brought further proof with the release of Forever Black, their first studio album since 1991’s Paradise Lost. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CIRITH UNGOL, CULTES DES GHOULES, HELRUNAR, WITCHTHROAT SERPENT, GEVURAH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 122018
 

 

Heavy metal’s fascination with the occult has deep roots and shows no signs of weakening. It is manifested in many ways, not all of which can be reconciled into some philosophically consistent gestalt, running the gamut from sorcery and witchcraft to elaborate schools of satanism, from the Dark Lords of Middle Earth to the horrors conceived by Lovecraft.

To this day, the embracing and channeling of evil cuts broad swaths across metal genres (white magic fell before the power of black magic within heavy metal in its infancy), though how we should understand the concept of “evil” and why it’s such a persistent feature of metal are subjects beyond the scope of this post. The subjects are on my mind simply because they had something to do with why I chose the following five new songs for this round-up, all of which appeared (in many instances without warning) over the last 24 hours.

CIRITH UNGOL

The first bolt from the blue took the form of the first studio recording by these Kings of the Dead since the release of Paradise Lost in 1991. It’s a single named “Witch’s Game“, which was recorded for inclusion in the forthcoming animated movie The Planet of Doom (more info about that here). The B-side of the single is a live version of “Doomed Planet” as performed at Germany’s Hammer of Doom festival in 2017. As you can see, it comes with stunning cover art by Michael Whelan. Continue reading »

INTERVIEW: CIRITH UNGOL

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  1 Response »
May 222017
 

 

Originally formed circa 1972, the California heavy metal band Cirith Ungol released four albums between 1980 and 1991 before disbanding, and in the process amassed an ardent world-wide fan following. The band reunited in 2015 for the Frost and Fire festival, and are continuing to forge ahead with festival appearances — and writing new music as well.

Greek writer John Sleepwalker of Avopolis.gr returns to NCS with this interview of Tim Baker, Greg Lindstrom, Jimmy Barraza, and Rob Garven leading up to Cirith Ungol’s performance at the Up the Hammers Festival in Athens, Greece, on May 27, 2017.

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First of all, what made a Cirith Ungol reunion possible after all these years? I think there was quite some interest from Greece too, for quite some time, but the band was very negative until now…

Rob: Jarvis Leatherby from Night Demon lives in our home town and he told me that when they traveled to Europe on tour they would see many fans wearing “Cirith Ungol” shirts, and patches, and many there knew of our band and music. I had sworn a blood oath that I would never play drums again, so I had always told him very politely that I was not interested. Everything changed at the “Frost & Fire” festival in 2015. Oliver Weinsheimer from the very famous and exclusive “Keep It True Festival” had come over for the show. Jarvis and Oliver asked to speak to the band alone. Continue reading »