Cirith Ungol - Half Human EP

I picked up the latest Cirith Ungol release, an EP entitled Half Past Human, released this year on Metal Blade Records. It has four songs on it, 'Route 666'; 'Shelob's Lair', 'Brutish Manchild' and the title track 'Half Past Human'.


I was very pleased to add this to my expanding music collection. During the lockdown months, I have enjoyed the pleasures of listening to music while working, writing and exercising. I've been discovering, and re-discovering, a lot of classic rock and metal bands. Cirith Ungol are a band I particularly like for Tim Baker's distinctive vocals, and their heavy sound combined with fantasy 'sword and sorcery' lyrics and themes. They are named after the mountain pass Cirith Ungol in J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, along which is the lair of Shelob the spider. 

The band were formed in 1972 and released their first studio album, Frost and Fire, in 1981. However, they broke up in 1992 and were inactive until 2016, when they reformed (however without founding guitarist Jerry Fogle who died of liver failure in 1998). Since then, there has been a new album, Forever Black, which was released last year and now this limited edition EP release.

Another notable feature of Cirith Ungol, and another fantasy fiction connection, is their album artwork. Each one of their album's cover art is taken from DAW Books editions of the novels in Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone saga. The artist is Michael Whelan.

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