Oh man, such a great band, this is one of their more low-key tunes, they've been around since the 70's, broke up for quite awhile but are now back touring, playing festivals, and releasing albums, love these guys.
Got their first 2 albums on vinyl. I sent a letter to the band in the late 80's and they sent me a bunch of stickers with their logo with the 2 skeletons praying, still got 1 left! check out Toccata in D Minor.
If you're a Tolkien fan then you'll know Cirith Ungol is the name of the famous tower in Lord of the Rings, they just borrowed the name. That explains the fantasy-themed lyrics of their songs. For more Metal influenced by Tolkien check out Blind Guardian (Power Metal with a more agressive soundscape) and Summoning (Atmospheric Black Metal with heavy use of synths and more slow-paced). And congrats for reaching 22K again! Well deserved!
What a remarkable thing, to do a reaction video of this specific song. One must understand this song in the context of listening to the entire album. It is an album which praises renewed strength in the weariness of sad and desolate evil. At this point in the album ones endurance for more heaviness is at the breaking point, and this song is a deeper gloom within the gloom, and then after comes the Bach piece and the one more hammering comes with the title track and the album ends in a extra frenzy so that one however hardened can not possibly stand anymore, but elegantly. Another band you should know in a similar genre is Blood Ceremony, "the evil Jethro Tull", one song by them I recommend is Drawing down the moon. The album King of the Dead by Cirith Ungol begins by introducing a new form of heaviness which appears in the early to mid 1980s and re-vives the 1970s heavy metal sound, but as a new thing, so that the artifact of nostalgia shines brightly. Possibly the high point is on the song Black Machine. The ideological pillars genre are perhaps Tolkien and Lovecraft. The music derives the mystery of the unknown from the era just prior in the recent past. This is deep brooding music, with minor keys, it is musically sad, the emotion of the songs is defiance and courage, the lyrics are about scary situations. The song Death of the Sun is the heaviest of the songs, which comes just before the Finger of Scorn, so that one needs the tranquility of the ballad. As I said one is beyond needing any more after the Finger of Scorn, so that the Bach Tocatta piece restores ones stamina and coaxes one to take just another helping, and that final helping is the title track Cirith Ungol, which utterly finishes you off, and you as a resisting questioning entity ARE GONE!!! Re-built! A new kind of human, needing only a duration of silence and time for reflection. Now you have a clearer understanding of many things.
Thanks for this. It's always good to see one of my favorite bands get some love. I love that you mentioned Skyrim. I actually played hours of Skyrim with the game music turned off while listening to this album. The atmosphere created by Cirith Ungol is very complementary to that Draugr tomb ambience in Skyrim. No question. That punchy bass by Mike Vujea was always a Cirith Ungol trademark. Everyone loves it and remarks on it. Vujea, better known by his nickname "Flint", was sadly not available to rejoin CU when they reunited to try to recreate the magic in 2016, but there is always hope that he will rethink this choice in the future and once again join CU in some form. I hope he does. Tragically, Jerry Fogle, CU's lead guitarist on its first three studio albums, drank himself into liver failure. Along with other disappointments with the band that pushed him into a bad place emotionally/mentally, Jerry misconstrued what the band was trying to accomplish by considering bringing in a second guitarist (studio recordings have multiple guitar tracks and Jerry could only play one of them live). According to drummer Rob Garven, Jerry took it very personally, feeling that he was being replaced, and he could not be convinced otherwise. Jerry was such a great player. Was he as technically gifted as an Yngwie Malmsteen or a Steve Vai? Perhaps not, but he had emotion. When he played a note, it moved you. Finger of Scorn, Black Machine, Master of the Pit, King of the Dead, Cirith Ungol, I'm Alive - all brilliant and moving lead guitar work. But that same emotion, and the insecurity that went along with it, is what ultimately did him in. What a loss. My take on Finger of Scorn is that we, as humans - greedy, wicked, wasteful, violent ('the beast will rule the hearts of men') - will be responsible for our ultimate destruction. And when that happens, having only ourselves to blame, the finger of scorn will point to us all. And what of the earth? It really does not care. The earth will continue to churn. Glaciers will melt. Sea levels will rise and fall. The earth will simply bury all that what we've created after we've destroyed ourselves ('til mankind falls to ape again'). Those 'black idols' - the things built by the advanced civilizations that came before us - will 'lie beneath the sea', buried through the churn of time, even as a new 'ape' rises from the ruins - and then the cycle repeats. Anyway, such a great song. It deserves much more attention than it ever got.
Oh man, such a great band, this is one of their more low-key tunes, they've been around since the 70's, broke up for quite awhile but are now back touring, playing festivals, and releasing albums, love these guys.
Wow, going real old school, huh? Love CU.
Got their first 2 albums on vinyl. I sent a letter to the band in the late 80's and they sent me a bunch of stickers with their logo with the 2 skeletons praying, still got 1 left! check out Toccata in D Minor.
If you're a Tolkien fan then you'll know Cirith Ungol is the name of the famous tower in Lord of the Rings, they just borrowed the name. That explains the fantasy-themed lyrics of their songs.
For more Metal influenced by Tolkien check out Blind Guardian (Power Metal with a more agressive soundscape) and Summoning (Atmospheric Black Metal with heavy use of synths and more slow-paced).
And congrats for reaching 22K again! Well deserved!
Actually it is the name of pass in the Ephel Dúath (Cirith = pass; Ungol = spider). The tower is the guardian of this moutain pass.
@@ninski3091 Thanks for the correction!
@@FaustianSpirit1997
No Problem^^'
When it comes to Lotr, I'm such a nerd.
Make sure you all know Ungol is the spawn of Ungoliant, from The Silmarillion
Love it! You're the man for reacting to this! 💜
What a remarkable thing, to do a reaction video of this specific song. One must understand this song in the context of listening to the entire album. It is an album which praises renewed strength in the weariness of sad and desolate evil. At this point in the album ones endurance for more heaviness is at the breaking point, and this song is a deeper gloom within the gloom, and then after comes the Bach piece and the one more hammering comes with the title track and the album ends in a extra frenzy so that one however hardened can not possibly stand anymore, but elegantly. Another band you should know in a similar genre is Blood Ceremony, "the evil Jethro Tull", one song by them I recommend is Drawing down the moon.
The album King of the Dead by Cirith Ungol begins by introducing a new form of heaviness which appears in the early to mid 1980s and re-vives the 1970s heavy metal sound, but as a new thing, so that the artifact of nostalgia shines brightly. Possibly the high point is on the song Black Machine. The ideological pillars genre are perhaps Tolkien and Lovecraft. The music derives the mystery of the unknown from the era just prior in the recent past. This is deep brooding music, with minor keys, it is musically sad, the emotion of the songs is defiance and courage, the lyrics are about scary situations. The song Death of the Sun is the heaviest of the songs, which comes just before the Finger of Scorn, so that one needs the tranquility of the ballad. As I said one is beyond needing any more after the Finger of Scorn, so that the Bach Tocatta piece restores ones stamina and coaxes one to take just another helping, and that final helping is the title track Cirith Ungol, which utterly finishes you off, and you as a resisting questioning entity ARE GONE!!! Re-built! A new kind of human, needing only a duration of silence and time for reflection. Now you have a clearer understanding of many things.
Unbelievable song. Raw and otherwordly
Thanks for this. It's always good to see one of my favorite bands get some love.
I love that you mentioned Skyrim. I actually played hours of Skyrim with the game music turned off while listening to this album. The atmosphere created by Cirith Ungol is very complementary to that Draugr tomb ambience in Skyrim. No question.
That punchy bass by Mike Vujea was always a Cirith Ungol trademark. Everyone loves it and remarks on it. Vujea, better known by his nickname "Flint", was sadly not available to rejoin CU when they reunited to try to recreate the magic in 2016, but there is always hope that he will rethink this choice in the future and once again join CU in some form. I hope he does.
Tragically, Jerry Fogle, CU's lead guitarist on its first three studio albums, drank himself into liver failure. Along with other disappointments with the band that pushed him into a bad place emotionally/mentally, Jerry misconstrued what the band was trying to accomplish by considering bringing in a second guitarist (studio recordings have multiple guitar tracks and Jerry could only play one of them live). According to drummer Rob Garven, Jerry took it very personally, feeling that he was being replaced, and he could not be convinced otherwise. Jerry was such a great player. Was he as technically gifted as an Yngwie Malmsteen or a Steve Vai? Perhaps not, but he had emotion. When he played a note, it moved you. Finger of Scorn, Black Machine, Master of the Pit, King of the Dead, Cirith Ungol, I'm Alive - all brilliant and moving lead guitar work. But that same emotion, and the insecurity that went along with it, is what ultimately did him in. What a loss.
My take on Finger of Scorn is that we, as humans - greedy, wicked, wasteful, violent ('the beast will rule the hearts of men') - will be responsible for our ultimate destruction. And when that happens, having only ourselves to blame, the finger of scorn will point to us all. And what of the earth? It really does not care. The earth will continue to churn. Glaciers will melt. Sea levels will rise and fall. The earth will simply bury all that what we've created after we've destroyed ourselves ('til mankind falls to ape again'). Those 'black idols' - the things built by the advanced civilizations that came before us - will 'lie beneath the sea', buried through the churn of time, even as a new 'ape' rises from the ruins - and then the cycle repeats.
Anyway, such a great song. It deserves much more attention than it ever got.
Great album and Band they dont have bad album or song