Cirith Ungol - "King of the Dead" - 3/5
http://truepunkmetal.blogs
This band plays a very unorthodox mix of two styles: Heavy and Doom. The instrumentation works very well, surprisingly. This is what would happen if Slough Feg and Black Sabbath had some sort of bastard child. This is filled with amazing drum and bass lines. In fact this contains some of the better bass Ive heard in a long while. The drums, are nothing super fast or technical but they manage to match perfectly, without overpowering the guitar riffs or being boring.
The guitar itself is interesting. The solos are very well composed, containing a lot of melody and still being on the slightly faster side. The riffs on the other hand are very polar, ranging from great to meh. Often times becoming to repetitive by the end of the song, especially in Atom Smasher. Overall this aspect is also very impressive.
Now for the vocals. Its not very often I find a band with vocals I absolutely hate. In fact only two come to mind immediately: Slipknot and Lamb of God. Now that number is 3. This band abuses reverb to almost no end, and the vocalist sounds like hes trying to make a whine into a scream. Though these vocals arent AS bad as Corey Taylor or Randy Blythe, as Im still able to enjoy the music part of Cirith Ungol while with the other two I cant even do that.
Highlights: Solos, title track
Avoid: Atom Smasher (IMNSHO)
This is a very solid attempt musically but a fairly poor vocal wise.
By M. Angell
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