ALBUM REVIEW: Dark Parade – Cirith Ungol
October, a month enjoyed by many, represents a proper change in the seasons. As nights draw in, leaves change colour, literally everything takes on the smell of pumpkin spice, and people dig their jumpers out from the back of wardrobes where they have spent the summer, doom metal bands gather to unveil their latest creations. One such band doing just that are genre stalwarts CIRITH UNGOL. Since 1981’s Frost And Fire, the Californian quintet have effortlessly blended the concepts of darkly brooding doom metal with the crunch and fire of NWOBHM. Crashing forward like a long slumbering eldritch terror that has just been given a thousand-volt alarm call, Dark Parade is the band’s sixth album and sees them hitting an ascending triumph.
Blasting out of the abyss is the tightly packed Velocity. Serving as the lead single for the album, the run-away tempo opener contains a wallop of crunching riffs, catchy melodies, searing solos and headbanging rhythm. The soaring vocals of Tim Baker complete the mix and everything fits together like a glove. The riffs continue unabated into Relentless with additional cross genre infusions thrown in for good measure. It’s a pounding track with the music perfectly tying in with the lyrical journey.
The opening two tracks see CIRITH UNGOL firing on all cylinders and certainly stepping up further from 2020’s Forever Black, but fortunately this is not an album that burns itself out after only a couple of tracks. The majestic Sailor On The Seas Of Fate gives everything one could want from a band of this calibre. The opening deft touches build seamlessly into a crashing, unstoppable sounding rhythm driven number. Mimicking the unrelenting sea within the lyrics, it’s a bold move putting in a big number like this in an early stage of an album, however it absolutely pays off here. It doesn’t feel out of place and leads onto the rest of the album flawlessly.
If you’re a lover of guitar solos, Looking Glass is the track for you. This blues-based mid-tempo rocker has all the presence of classic UNGOL from previous works found on the likes of One Foot In Hell and Paradise Lost. However, the overall track is drenched in the brooding power generated by the previous tracks and slots in perfectly with the body of work presented on Dark Parade. Treading the path of moody nightmarish tale, it lays the groundwork for the tumbling darkness of themes offered up by the title track and closing tracks.
The mix ideally suits the music provided. Capturing a quality that is undeniably CIRITH UNGOL, it elevates the musicianship and songwriting to a more complete level. The tracks produced are fully unified and representative of both the Lovecraftian imagery and real-world darkness that the lyrics discuss. The musicality is everything one would expect with the bleakness of that. However, it is highly enjoyable and engaging and with many high points to choose from, it’s certainly an album for metal fans the world over.
While many fans will undoubtedly have their personal favourites from CIRITH UNGOL‘s back catalogue, but Dark Parade feels like a fully formed body of work that will provide a prime example of what they’re all about. The eight tracks perfectly represent the fine balance of doom and more traditional metal that is the DNA of CIRITH UNGOL. For newcomers, it’s a prime jumping off point and for others it could certainly become the top album from the band.
Rating: 9/10
Dark Parade is set for release on October 20th via Metal Blade Records.
Like CIRITH UNGOL on Facebook.