Cirith Ungol - Half Past Human EP (2021)

Half Past Human is not only impressive in that it proves the new era of Cirith Ungol wasn't going to be a one and done, but also that it does such a great job of revisiting older material and updating it to the production qualities of Forever Black. Dropping just a year after the reunion record, it's got one re-recorded track from their album-length 1978 demo and a couple others that Greg Lindstrom had reused in another of his bands called Falcon. Regardless, they all fit in pretty well with what the Californians had been doing in the later 80s or the new full-length, and a couple are decent enough to be staples on anyone's Cirith Ungol playlist. "Route 666" does give me a little of a "100 MPH" vibe, which doesn't quite put the short-player's best material to the fore, but like that song, it's still pretty catchy with some good lead glazing, a thumping bass tone and some aggressive vocals from Baker.

The rest of the material is a little darker and stronger though, like "Shelob's Lair" and it's bluesy, stomping tribute to everyone's favorite giant spider, or the title track which has an atmospheric doom vibe that sits alongside some of the epics from the record before it. You can kind of discern that these overall might not be quite awesome enough to have included with Forever Black or Dark Parade, some of them do feel like recycled and polished-off B-sides, but I remember this was plenty enough to tide me over while I was waiting for something more elaborate. They're not hitting at their hardest here, but you could easily imagine any of these tracks being part of Paradise Lost, it has that same sort of smoother production without losing the towering angst of Tim Baker's tone. The drums sound great, the leads shine wherever they show up, the bass is possibly the most corpulent on any of the recordings and even the little chants and things you hear layered in for atmosphere do their job. The Michael Whelan cover art slays, in this case literally, but when doesn't it?

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

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