Ich wusste, es würde sich irgendwann auszahlen, noch einen zweiten Plattenspieler im Gästezimmer zu haben. So kann ich dem Wahnsinn entkommen, der unser Wohnzimmer im Griff hat 😂 #ESC
… und zwar mit #CirithUngol „Live At The Roxy“
#CirithUngol
#TheMetalDogArticleList
#BraveWords–WhereMusicLives
CIRITH UNGOL Unleash “King Of The Dead” Video From Live At The Roxy Release
#CirithUngol #KingOfTheDead #RoxyTheatre #MetalBladeRecords #DarkParade #SunsetStrip #LiveAtTheRoxy #RobGarven #JarvisLeatherby #LouAdler
Metal Blade Video 🤘 Cirith Ungol's "King Of The Dead" from 'Live At The Roxy' - out now! #cirithungol #heavymetal #metal http://dlvr.it/TKnSrz LinkInBio for More 🤘 #MetalBladeRecords #HeavyMetal #Metal
Cirith Ungol avait sorti un album en 2023 et personne ne m'avait dit 😭
➡️ Dark Parade 🤘🤘
CIRITH UNGOL (Estats Units) presenta nou àlbum en directe: "Live at the Roxy" #CirithUngol #EpicHeavy #DoomMetal #Abril2025 #EstatsUnits #NouÀlbumEnDirecte #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
*ad New on #Thunderflix
#TheBlackDahliaMurder, #IzzyBorden, #Ensiferum, and #CirithUngol 🔥
Check it out via: https://www.thunderflix.com
Serpent Rider – The Ichor Of Chimaera Review
By Steel Druhm
Steel never gets his fill of old-timey, sword-swinging trve metal. It’s one of the few genres that pulls me away from the rot pit these days, and a break from the reek of putrefaction is always nice. Enter The Ichor Of Chimaera, the debut from Los Angeles-based trvesters Serpent Rider, featuring Brandon Corsair of Houkago Grind Time and Draghkar. Their goal is a convincingly throwback sound and an epic vibe, taking pages from Manilla Road, Brocas Helm, DoomSword, and newer acts like Smoulder. With ample musical chops and solid appreciation for the sounds of past glories, can Serpent Rider tame the snakes of inexperience and triumph over the other trve hordes stalking the wastelands?
Things open in a deceptively low-key way on “Steel is the Answer.” The title would lead one to expect pounding war drums, martial marching, and much chest-thumping bravado, but instead, you’re met by the smooth and decidedly mellow vocals of R. Villar, who operates in a sedate, hypnotic space despite spinning tales of steel conquest and retribution. The supporting music is fully retro, with 80s-centric proto-metal riffs and flashes of glory-seeking harmonies. This creates a bit of a disconnect, but it isn’t bad at all. The war hammers rattle more forcefully on “Radiant,” where the might of trve metal reveals itself, even if the vocals never rise to match the fervor. The album grows stronger as it goes along, with the victorious, valorous (and somewhat liturgical) “Matri Deorum” charging into that sweet spot between Cirith Ungol, Manowar, and DoomSword, and I want to hoist a banner in its honor. This is the stuff that brings Steel to the fightspace.
Other moments of entertaining throwback barbarian fury include “Tyrant’s March,” which is what I expected more of based on the genre and promo language. This is more like all thunderous war galloping and ravaging, and I’m here for it. Closer “In Spring” changes things up with bouncy NWoBHM riffs that eventually merge into blackened terms and frantic blastbeats. This is an ingredient they should have mixed throughout the entire Manocake for added thrills and kills. There are a few stumbles on the way to Helm’s Deep, however. The title track is a decent enough 5-minute song stretched on the Rack of Elongation to an unwieldy 7-plus minutes, and it gets tiresome before it retreats. “The Hero’s Spirit” suffers a different fate, opting for a quasi-Goth doom sound that recalls Within Temptation, but doesn’t quite come together. At a crisp 36:11 minutes, most of The Ichor of Chimaera goes down pretty easily like ice-cold Night Train. The production is warm and appropriately retro, with a certain Cirith Ungol-esque clang and clomp I appreciate.
Though a vocalist can often be the guiding force for a trve metal act, in the case of Serpent Rider, it’s the fretboard acumen of Paul Gelbach and Brandon Corsair that fills the sails and cracks the whips. They run through a variety of old time influences along the way, like Cirith Ungol, Helstar, and Manilla Road, and they know exactly the sound and vibe they want to invoke. They’re adept at creating 80s-centric soundscapes and bring a goodly amount of heat to the forge. R Villar is an interesting frontwoman. Her smooth, laconic delivery is pleasant but feels out of place on songs that sound like they were made for battle and heroics, and the music cries out for more passion and invective. Her laid back approach works better on the slower, doomy cuts like the title track, but I still want MOAR oomph from her. She seems unwilling to take things into a more forceful gear, even on the aggressive cuts like “Radiant” and “In Spring.” This makes me long for Tower’s Sarabeth Linden to show up and roar against the dying of the light.
Serpent Rider exist inside the trve wheelhouse of Steel, and I enjoy what they do on The Ichor Of Chimaera. I just wish they brought more swords to the slaughter and fewer Gothic sleepytime lullabies. There’s plenty to like here, and a few keepers to honor in the Playlists of Titans. They just need to dial the trveness up a few more notches if you hope to curry favor with the Lords of Metal on Mount Crom. Hoard the damn swords, people. HOARD THEM!
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: No Remorse
Websites: serpentrider.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/serpentriderband | instagram.com/serpentriderofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 28th, 2025
#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #CirithUngol #DoomMetal #HeavyMetal #HoukagoGrindTime #ManillaRoad #Mar25 #NoRemorseRecords #Review #Reviews #SerpentRider #Smoulder #TheIchorOfChimaera #TrueMetal
Metal Blade Video 🤘 Cirith Ungol unveils 'Live At The Roxy'; taken from last years EPIC performance! #cirithungol #metal http://dlvr.it/TJncTj LinkInBio for More 🤘 #MetalBladeRecords #HeavyMetal #Metal
Savage Master – Dark & Dangerous Review
By Kenstrosity
I had the pleasure of catching Savage Master live during January’s Heavy Mountain Music Festival. Eight straight hours of killer music, with no duds across the entire bill, played a key role in rekindling my lust for live music after the hurricane tried—and failed—to wash away my spirit. For their part, the Kentucky occult/heavy metal quintet were one of the best acts of the night, brimming with classic crowd-rousing energy and sparkling stage chemistry. However, their reputation for varied reception by our Ape ov Steel on this blog precedes them. Can they recover some devilish grace with upcoming fifth record, Dark & Dangerous?
Citing such reference points as Cirith Ungol, Bitch, and even Saxon, not much about Savage Master’s BDSM-based, Satan-seducing approach to heavy metal changed since With Whips and Chains and Myths, Magic & Steel. Guitar and vocal forward, Dark & Dangerous doubles down on catchy riffs, shreddy solos, infectious verses, and sticky choruses delivered with the same occult swagger I love about acts like Saturday Night Satan and Avatarium‘s bouncier material. Challenging the status quo of heavy metal at large isn’t on Savage Master’s agenda, but rollicking tracks like “The Edge of Evil” suck you into a hellish party vibe that doesn’t want to let you go until it has your body and soul for itself for all eternity. In other words, Dark & Dangerous is oodles of fun, and it gives the impression that Savage Master has as much, if not more, fun than you.
Despite Stacey Savage’s sultry, powerhouse delivery, it is Julian Fried’s and Larry Myer’s dueling axe antics that lock the devil’s seal on Dark & Dangerous. Much to my great joy, their shimmery leads and emphatic solos on record match the sensually charged aura they exuded on stage. Standout tracks in the middle of these tight 38 minutes, “The Edge of Evil,” “Devil’s Child,” and later highlight “When the Twilight Meets the Dawn” showcase their enthusiastic fretwork best. In these, bright and ebullient melodies twist their forked tongues against the scalding flesh of heated solos and trotting riffs such that my attention never wavers from such carnal debauchery. Yet, Savage’s venomous wails and full-bodied belts still ring out with clarity, solidifying her role as the troupe’s merciless dominatrix (“The Edge of Evil,” “Never Ending Fire,” “I Never Wanna Fall in Love”). Adam Neal’s bass guitar offers fun bounce to that low-end counterpoint that juggles rhythmic duties with drummer John W. Littlejohn’s youthful gallops on the kit, maintaining ample momentum to keep Dark & Dangerous from losing any steam (“Never Ending Fire,” “When the Twilight Meets the Dawn”).
While it is evident that Savage Master clearly have a ton of fun writing and playing this well-worn variety of heavy metal, as many individual cuts on Dark & Dangerous fade out of memory as those which brand the gray matter for all time. Where bar-crawling rockers “Devil Rock” and “I Never Wanna Fall in Love” maximize the sweet and sticky hooks of 80s hair and glam, solidifying their eternal presence in my mind, other cuts like “Warrior’s Call,” “Black Rider,” and “Screams from the Cellar” fail to make any impression at all. These tracks follow a similar formula as stronger options like “The Edge of Evil,” but distinguishing characteristics or cleverly packaged writing come at a steep premium, squandering any chance of being remembered. Overblown ballad closer “Cold Hearted Death” attempts a slower and more somber number, but it, too, falls flat outside of its powerhouse chorus and satisfying final-third solo.
Perhaps most damning of all, at the core, Dark & Dangerous is an extremely simple, by-the-numbers affair. As fun as this record can be in the moment, it’s hard to argue that it competes well against standout contemporaries like Tower or Saturday Night Satan in this competitive field. Several cuts off Dark & Dangerous are a shoo-in for any quality heavy metal playlist, but as an album, it’s but another point in the pentagram. Still, Savage Master’s fifth is worth a spin or two for a good time. And if you ever get the chance to see them live, don’t miss!
Rating: Mixed
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Websites: savagemasterofficial.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/savagemasterofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 28th, 2025
#25 #2025 #AmericanMetal #Avatarium #Bitch #CirithUngol #DarkDangerous #HeavyMetal #Mar25 #OccultMetal #Review #Reviews #SaturdayNightSatan #SavageMaster #Saxon #ShadowKingdomRecords #Tower
El metal de la vieja escuela se tomó Sala Metrónomo: Cirith Ungol, Night Demon y Ancient Doom | vía #SonidosOcultos
#chile #cirithungol #conciertos #doommetal #heavymetal #nightdemonyancientdoom #salametronomo #spiderprod #t2025
Cirith Ungol y Night Demon por primera vez en Chile (2025) | vía #SonidosOcultos
https://www.sonidosocultos.com/noticia/cirith-ungol-y-night-demon-por-primera-vez-en-chile-2025/
#cirithungol #eeuu #heavymetal #jarvisleatherby #livechile #metal #nightdemon #t2025 #timbaker
Cirith Ungol is criminally underappreciated.
Century – Sign of the Storm Review
By Holdeneye
There’s something so magical about epic traditional metal. Of course, I could be speaking about the genre’s sword and sorcery themes, but I actually mean it in a much larger sense. So much of today’s metal is unmistakably modern in the way that it is produced, played, and marketed, and, yes, I enjoy a ton of this perfectly polished output. But it’s so much fun to have a sub-genre of our favorite music that not only transports us back decades in time through conscious aesthetic choices but also teleports us to another universe where might and magic reign supreme. Fortunately for fans of epic metal like myself, there is a mighty host of modern bands assembling on the field to carry on the work that arguably began with Rainbow’s “Stargazer” and was unquestionably perfected by bands like Manowar, Cirith Ungol, and Manilla Road. This host aims to expand the borders of the empire founded by those mighty forbears, and by all accounts, many of these fresh reinforcements, whom some like to refer to as the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal, seem poised for a breakthrough.
Founded in 2020, Sweden’s Century are relatively new recruits, but the success of their campaign already speaks for itself. The band’s 2023 debut, The Conquest of Time, was a fantastic platter of traditional, verging-on-epic metal, and follow-up Sign of the Storm picks up right where it left off. Obviously influenced by some of the bands mentioned above, plus usual suspects like Maiden and Priest, Century themselves would probably add fellow Swedes Heavy Load to their roster of stylistic ancestors. They do all of these inspirations proud by playing an incredibly authentic, diverse, and well-executed version of a classic sound. Their songwriting, style, and production aesthetic are so authentic, in fact, that you’d be forgiven if you were to listen to Century and surmise that they were an early influence on Satan, even if the converse is likely true. Press ‘play’ on embedded single and album opener “Sacrifice,” and feel yourself being transported back to the late 70’s/early 80’s, a time when heavy music was genre-fluid and could morph between hard rock, heavy metal, and early forms of speed and power metal in the blink of an eye.
That stylistic fluidity is one of the things that makes Sign of the Storm so much fun. On any given track, Century might be cruising through NWoBHM territory (“Children of the Past” or “Possessed by the Night”), accelerating into pure speed metal (“Necromancer” or the aforementioned “Sacrifice”), or slowing down and taking a turn for the epic (“Chains of Hell” and “Fallen Hero”). 70’s rock rears its mustachioed face when Century suddenly sounds like a metalized Blue Öyster Cult on the catchy-as-hell “Fly Away” and “No Time for Tomorrow.” All this variety allows for the potential for a disjointed, forced affair, but these guys flow in and out of each style so convincingly that they all blend together into one delicious, cohesive sonic smoothie.
I was surprised to learn that Century is comprised of just two talented gentlemen, and I think that’s because the production on Sign of the Storm is just so damn pristine and old-school. The album sounds like it’s 40-plus years old, so my brain was imagining a full band recording these tunes in a studio. But no, it’s just Staffan Tengnér (vocals/guitars) and Leo Ekström Sollenmo (drums/bass), and yes, they absolutely nail their performances. Tengnér’s voice is smooth, yet deceptively powerful, and it matches all of Century’s different moods perfectly—and his classic metal/rock guitar work is simply a delight to behold. My complaints with the record are few and minor. I might switch up the track order a little, the middle of the album takes a slight dip in quality on “Chain of Hell,” and the closing instrumental, while excellently played, feels like an optional bonus track as penultimate number “Possessed by the Night” would have ended the album perfectly. But then again, who doesn’t want to have a little high-quality Maiden worship to walk them to the door on the way out?
I’m sitting here in the early weeks of 2025 hoping to review a ton of traditional metal in the coming year, and with Sign of the Storm, Century have set the bar pretty high for all subsequent challengers. This album channels its source material with such effortless swagger that it may lull you into a false sense of security. Don’t miss the signs, or this traditional tempest might blow you away.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Labels: Dying Victims Productions | Electric Assault Records
Websites: centuryswe.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/centuryswe
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025
#2025 #35 #BlueOysterCult #Century #CirithUngol #DyingVictimsProductions #ElectricAssaultRecords #HeavyLoad #HeavyMetal #IronMaiden #Jan25 #JudasPriest #ManillaRoad #Manowar #NWOBHM #Rainbow #Review #Reviews #Satan #SignOfTheStorm #SwedishMetal
🔊 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #VarietyMix
Cirith Ungol:
🎵 Join the Legion
https://cirithungol.bandcamp.com/track/join-the-legion
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Q0iEC3YD6ISqh6zif2PXr
🎶 show playlist 👇
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6G4PaS9BNkIuGqMo44rbfZ
🎶 KEXP playlist 👇
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6VNALrOa3gWbk794YuIrwg
Frost and Fire, Part 2 – Heavy Metal Edition
This past SpaceAce Sunday, we looked at the first of two albums we have on The List that have the same, rather holiday-relevant title of Frost and Fire. While The Watersons’ album actually has a few Xmas/Xmas-adjacent songs, the same cannot be said of the album we are looking at today. But, it’s December 24, and so anything you listen to can be an Xmas album if you want it to be. Or, as they[1] say, “yippie kayak, other buckets!”
Cirith Ungol – Frost and Fire (1981, US)
And so, today we take a listen to number 892 on The List, submitted by Almoehi.
I know that many metalheads are absolutely fanatic about this band, but listening to this album the other day was actually the first I had ever heard of theirs! With the band named after the mountain pass in Tolkien’s Middle-earth that goes through the Ephel Dúath (you know, the one near Minas Morgul in Mordor…), one might expect a lot of LoTR-themed lyrics on this, the band’s debut album. But, perhaps hinted at by the fact that the band name is to be pronounced “sirith ungol” rather than the more accurate “kirith ungol”, the name seems more of a statement of the lyrics being in the fantasy realm, with a loose association to the LoTR books rather than them being an overarching theme. At any rate, I don’t recognize any of the lyrics on this album as being LoTR-themed, so I believe it isn’t until their next album, King of the Dead (1984), that we get to totally nerd out in that respect.
But! Let’s nerd out about the cover! This is the third album we’ve looked at so far on The List with a cover painted by the incredible Michael Whelan (on Mastodon: @MichaelWhelan).[2] The Frost and Fire cover is a crop of Whelan’s 1977 painting titled “Stormbringer”, and was used on the cover of Michael Moorcock’s book of the same name, from his Elric of Melniboné saga. Whelan in fact would go on to provide the art for every single Cirith Ungol album, with all of the paintings also pulling double duty on a Moorcock/Elric of Melniboné book!
Even just based on those credits alone, it’s perhaps no surprise that music journalist and musician Sarah Kitteringham – of the epic doom metal band Smoulder[3] and of BangerTV – is a giant Cirith Ungol fan. Sarah can dance circles around anyone in talking about this band (and, well, probably any doom/heavy metal metal band), and in fact wrote the liner notes for the 40th anniversary reissue of Frost and Fire! So, rather than me regaling you with any Wikipedia-level facts, I would suggest we head on over to Discogs and read through those liner notes together (click to images 2 and 3). If you’re a fan, perhaps also check out these demos and extras that were part of that anniversary reissue.
And so concludes our mini spotlight theme. Stay frosty and/or firey, all. 🤘
[1]Well, Charles Boyle at least says this.
[2]The others being Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell II and Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains.
[3]Fun fact: All of Smoulder’s album covers are also done by Whelan, and both of their LPs either reference or feature Moorcock.
#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #CirithUngol #heavyMetal #ListenToThis #metal #MichaelWhelan #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #powerMetal #protoDoom #protoDoomMetal
Montagsblues? Wie wärs mit Metal-Nostalgie und einem Bericht zum Deaf Forever Birthday Bash?
https://andwil.de/weblog/deaf-forever-birthday-bash-2024
#metal #deafforever #asphyx #cirithungol #hamburg #markthalle
Phaëthon – Wielder of the Steel Review
By Steel Druhm
Maybe I’m alone in this, but I want more sword-swinging trve/epic metal in my life. I want more bands sounding like Cirith Ungol, Brocas Helm, and Manilla Road in circulation. I want it to be 1066 A.D. too! I guess I just miss that classic sound and find myself walking among the tombstones of olden albums like King of the Dead and Out of the Gates more and more as I approach extreme ancienthood. This made me an easy mark for England’s Phaëthon who aspire to weld Viking-era Bathory onto the framework established by the 80s epic greats and continued by bands like Doomsword and Argus. On their Wielder of the Steel debut, they mine the depths of the 80s trve metal sound while keeping a foot in NWoBHM and the early Viking metal days. This is a heady combination, but can it be successfully forged into a weapon of might and magic? That’s where the metal meets the anvil, folks.
As soon as the blacksmithy opens for iron business on “Eternal Hammerer” it’s clear these metalworkers love the 80s sound and atmosphere. Shades of Cirith Ungol course through the music along with Witchfinder General and Witchkiller (think “Day of the Saxons” then go spin that lost gem 50 times). It’s big throwback fun delivered with great enthusiasm by the band, especially vocalist S. Vrath who really gets into character. It’s a rousing war chanty and it should get your polearm standing at full attention. Epic and bombastic cut “Vanguard of the Emperor” goes for large bigness at all costs, sounding like Atlantean Kodex smashing headlong into Doomsword’s weakened left flank. This is battle-hungry metal born of strife and struggle and Steel is here for it every damn day. The overly dramatic spoken word section is very gratuitous and pads the song out, but overall this is a successful campaign of conquest. Especially thrilling is the wanton trveness displayed on “For the Greater Good of Evil” which plays out like a violent collision between Megaton Sword, Venom, and Twisted Tower Dire. It’s sloppy, ridiculous, and overwrought, but it’s loads of fun. “Blasphemers” incorporates a quasi-blackened thrash vibe that also works quite well, sounding aggressive and righteous.
Unfortunately, Phaëthon don’t always arrive with the best-laid battle plans. The 7-minutes of “Tolls of Perdition” aim for the sweet spot somewhere between epic-minded Iron Maiden and early Manowar but crash in the adjacent landfill due to WAY too many dramatic spoken word pieces with overly Shakespearian intoning that get tedious quickly (more on this later). The massive 9-plus minute closing title track is all over the map, swinging wildly trying to hit multiple moods and eras, but it’s all sound and fury signifying that it’s not that great of a song. Good bits are present but I really don’t enjoy the long ride aside from the fact that at multiple points it reminded me of this long-lost 80s treasure. The most annoying aspect of the album is the recurring spoken word pieces done in a wildly over-dramatic manner. It’s like the band hired a herald akin to Paul Bettany in A Knight’s Tale to regale you with heroic tales during the song about the very same heroic tales. After a few of these needless interruptions, you want the blustering puffery to cease and desist toot-sweet. The songwriting itself is also quite inconsistent. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s not, things can get quite ham-fisted and awkward. At 42-plus minutes, the album feels considerably longer than it is with several songs suffering from disabling bouts of mega-bloat.
Another big obstacle to fully enjoying Wielder is vocalist S. Vrath. He’s the ultimate love or loath frontman and his mammothly exaggerated delivery is like Uzzy Unchained from Megaton Sword if he were even MOAR unchained and then mixed with Deathmaster of Doomsword. That’s an ungainly combo no matter how you slice it, and the vocals here will slice your ear canals plenty. Luckily, Vrath is a far better guitarist than vocalist and along with Decado, he harnesses the NWoBHM and trve metal genres to deliver fun moments steeped in the golden age of classy metaldom.
Wielder of the Steel is like a big nostalgia bomb that fails to detonate. There are so many elements here I want to love, but the end product proves tough to cuddle up with. Some streamlining and much more focused writing could bring Phaëthon closer to acts like Megaton Sword but as of now, their hammers are running low on essential glory oil. Back to the war room, boys!
Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Gates of Hell
Websites: phaethon.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/phaethonband | instagram.com/phaethonband
Releases Worldwide: August 30, 2024
#20 #2024 #Aug30 #Bathory #CirithUngol #Doomsword #EpicMetal #GatesOfHellRecords #HeavyMetal #ManillaRoad #MegatonSword #Phaëthon #Review #Reviews #UKMetal #WielderOfTheSteel
🔊 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SeekAndDestroy
Cirith Ungol:
🎵 Sailor on the Seas of Fate
https://open.spotify.com/track/2wotzttXQkt1A4RM21SLbq
https://cirithungol.bandcamp.com/track/sailor-on-the-seas-of-fate
#Bandcamp
Cirith Ungol were absolutely phenomenal in Brisbane tonight!
I got into them around 10 years ago through Reverend Bizarre (https://youtu.be/ZnvMdZOo2U4). At that time, Cirith Ungol had already been broken up for 15 years, so I never imagined I'd get to see them live. Yet, here they are, and they still sound outstanding after all these years.
I'm stoked that they finally made it to Australia for their last ever tour. This was the best concert I've seen yet! 🤘🏻
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