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Live Roundup #75
The Nwothm We are back with another live roundup showing you some of the best gigs and festivals coming up in the near future! Buying in advance both supports bands and festivals helping to make sure shows go ahead! So what are you waiting for, go and grabs some tickets! What your gig featured? If you would like to have your gig featured here please drop us a message on our socials or email…
Cirith Ungol: One Foot in Hell (1986)
Never the most widely known of heavy metal bands to begin with (although surely one of the most instantly recognizable) Ventura, CA's Cirith Ungol were living on borrowed time by the release of their third album, One Foot in Hell, 40 years ago.
Whereas 1981's Frost and Fire would go down as a bona fide American castle metal classic and '84's King of the Dead offered its fair share of worthy material -- as sonically distinctive as it was hopelessly uncommercial -- this LP from '86 sounded just plain tired.
And hopelessly old-fashioned (remember Cirith Ungol's roots dated to the early '70s!), which proved to be the kiss of death for most forward-thinking '80s metal-heads, drunk on a genre that had exploded into the mainstream with a seemingly infinite variety of new bands and styles.
Piss-poor production, lacking in depth and dynamics, certainly didn't help matters; saddling unusually energetic gallops like "Blood and Iron" and "100 M.P.H." with a thin, anemic mix that could hardly compete with the muscular thrash recordings of the period.
These same issues also afflict plodding efforts like "The Fire" and "Doomed Planet," which exposed singer Tim Baker -- always an acquired taste -- to increasing criticism as his strangled rasps and shrieks had been demoted, over the years, from lovable curiosity to professional liability.
Note how on the Michael Moorcock-inspired "Nadsokor" (named after the fictional "City of Beggars" in his dark fantasy Elric of Melniboné saga), Baker's contributions are rendered ghostlike, almost unintelligible, they're buried so deep in the mix.
So the responsibility for rescuing Cirith Ungol's latest "quest" fell largely on the shoulders of guitarist Jerry Fogle, who fought through these sonic constraints to deliver some of his most inspired, epic, classically-inspired solos -- particularly on "War Eternal."
And just when you least expect it, the dark, weird alchemy of Cirith Ungol (completed by bassist Michael 'Flint' Vujea and drummer Robert Garven) is rekindled for the title track's foreboding staccato riffs and the irresistible, dual-paced highlight, "Chaos Descends."
Now, if you think I'm being too harsh, know that I was even harsher in this old All-Music Guide review of One Foot in Hell; but what sounded terribly archaic next to metallic trends in in 1986, inevitably projects a desirable "vintage" quality for nostalgic metal heads today.
However, belated reappraisals obviously did Cirith Ungol no good 40 years ago, and the band's already cult-level stature continued on its steep and irreversible slide towards an ignoble and almost unheralded demise five years later.
More Cirith Ungol: Frost and Fire, King of the Dead.
Manuscript of Tolkien working on the chapter "Shelob's Lair"
I enjoy your LOTR whump awakening posts. what's your own?
Thanks! It was the books. Specifically the Mordor chapters with Sam and Frodo.
I just loved the Cirith Ungol part where Frodo is stabbed and paralyzed, then whipped by Snaga, and Sam just snaps. He hacks off Snaga's hand, sends him crashing down the hatch, and then runs straight to Frodo. He gathers him into his arms, pulls him against his breast, and they just sit there cuddling.
They're in the worst place in the whole world, and for that one moment it doesn't matter anymore. They find comfort in each other right there in the middle of Mordor in a torture Orc Tower.
I mean...
I'd never read anything like that before. I'd tried romance stories, but they never resonated with me.
This did.
The pain. The blood. The rawness of it. And then that overwhelming relief. The contrast between absolute terror and the safety of Sam's arms is just... aargh. The horror intensifies the comfort. All the fear, pain, and blood make that tenderness feel completely real.
And in a way, Sam saves himself when he saves Frodo. He's so consumed by self-doubt and low self-esteem, and Frodo becomes his salvation. They rescue each other. Not just once, but over and over again.
Sam saves Frodo physically.
Frodo saves Sam spiritually.
It's just... The best dynamic ever, really. Those 2 Mordor chapters are absolute whump galore to me.
Thank for asking.
Tower of Cirith Ungol | Artwork by John Howe
Review: Iron Kobra "Eternal Dagger"
Release date: 19th June 2026 Label: Dying Victims Productions 5–7 minutes Gage J. Tolin DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present IRON KOBRA’s highly anticipated third album, Eternal Dagger, on CD, MC and vinyl LP formats. Additionally their two previous albums will be re-released at the same time. Formed in 2008, Germany’s IRON KOBRA began with a noble mission: to bring heavy metal back…
Why Frodo is put in the top chamber of the Tower of Cirith Ungol and not in a cell down below
Shagrat to Gorbag: "He’s precious. I don’t trust all my lads, and none of yours; nor you neither, when you’re mad for fun. He’s going where I want him, and where you won’t come, if you don’t keep civil. Up to the top, I say. He’ll be safe there."
