Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead (1984)

King of the Dead might not have hit peak Cirith Ungol for me, but this record was certainly meaner and more substantial than its predecessor, and even the younger Me appreciated it a little more right out of the box than the debut. Stylistically, it's not a lot different, there's still a lot of bluesy hard rock coursing through its 60s-70s fantasy veins, but Tim Baker's vocal performance here is a lot more evil and over the top and that alone gives the tunes a darker atmosphere. They still maintain that pop to the bass guitars which made them stand out against a lot of other heavy metal bands of the day, and the focus on memorable, simple rhythm guitars with plenty of groove to them, and melodic leads definitely stood alongside bands like Trouble and Pentagram to help the doom metal style evolve from Sabbath into a genre.

For many fans, this is the de facto Cirith Ungol experience, and while I'm an outlier to that idea, I can certainly understand why. It kicks your teeth in with steady blazers "Atom Smasher" and "Black Machine", but then after dispatching the minion hordes on the surface, creeps through the caverns in "Master of the Pit" with its bass line and leads, or the lumbering title track, which is both understated and epic in equal measures, Baker spitting out some of his most dangerous elongated screams to the slightly choppy, proggy grooves in the bridge. This also has a much mightier second half than the debut, with awesome pieces like "Death of the Sun", or the doomy power 'ballad' "Finger of Scorn" which once again features some of Baker's more eerie wailing dowsing it with atmosphere. The instrumental "Toccata in Dm" was something slightly different, a classical adaptation spun into a nice contrast of effected leads and spooky bass lines. They also pace this whole 46 minute journey quite well, and end on a strong note with their namesake track that exemplifies all their patient, pounding dynamics.

King of the Dead is more or less a template for One Foot in Hell, and that I appreciate, but it's also the perfect accompaniment for a night paging through your old epic fantasy paperbacks by Moorcock, Tolkien, Howard or Cook, or perhaps your Warlord comics. It's sword & sorcery writ into musical form, something not a lot of bands were doing at the time as the hair metal was starting to rage, thrash was in its infancy and a lot of Cirith Ungol's own Metal Blade peers were starting to eke out their own strains of what we'd now dub USPM. An umbrella they themselves might belong to, but has a pretty diverse palette...Omen and Manowar, Lizzy Borden and this band all sound quite different, with just enough overlap to interest a mutual audience. In the end, though, this sophomore just feels more committed to the sound established on the debut, slightly more consistent in production and songwriting and there's a pretty understandable reason why fans might hand you this first if you express interest in the band.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

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