Si no son más heavies que una lluvia de hachas que baje Crom y lo vea.

Frost and Fire, Part 2 – Heavy Metal Edition

This past SpaceAce Sunday, we looked at the first of two albums we have on The List that have the same, rather holiday-relevant title of Frost and Fire. While The Watersons’ album actually has a few Xmas/Xmas-adjacent songs, the same cannot be said of the album we are looking at today. But, it’s December 24, and so anything you listen to can be an Xmas album if you want it to be. Or, as they[1] say, “yippie kayak, other buckets!”

Cirith Ungol – Frost and Fire (1981, US)

And so, today we take a listen to number 892 on The List, submitted by Almoehi.

I know that many metalheads are absolutely fanatic about this band, but listening to this album the other day was actually the first I had ever heard of theirs! With the band named after the mountain pass in Tolkien’s Middle-earth that goes through the Ephel Dúath (you know, the one near Minas Morgul in Mordor…), one might expect a lot of LoTR-themed lyrics on this, the band’s debut album. But, perhaps hinted at by the fact that the band name is to be pronounced “sirith ungol” rather than the more accurate “kirith ungol”, the name seems more of a statement of the lyrics being in the fantasy realm, with a loose association to the LoTR books rather than them being an overarching theme. At any rate, I don’t recognize any of the lyrics on this album as being LoTR-themed, so I believe it isn’t until their next album, King of the Dead (1984), that we get to totally nerd out in that respect.

But! Let’s nerd out about the cover! This is the third album we’ve looked at so far on The List with a cover painted by the incredible Michael Whelan (on Mastodon: @MichaelWhelan).[2] The Frost and Fire cover is a crop of Whelan’s 1977 painting titled “Stormbringer”, and was used on the cover of Michael Moorcock’s book of the same name, from his Elric of Melniboné saga. Whelan in fact would go on to provide the art for every single Cirith Ungol album, with all of the paintings also pulling double duty on a Moorcock/Elric of Melniboné book!

Even just based on those credits alone, it’s perhaps no surprise that music journalist and musician Sarah Kitteringham – of the epic doom metal band Smoulder[3] and of BangerTV – is a giant Cirith Ungol fan. Sarah can dance circles around anyone in talking about this band (and, well, probably any doom/heavy metal metal band), and in fact wrote the liner notes for the 40th anniversary reissue of Frost and Fire! So, rather than me regaling you with any Wikipedia-level facts, I would suggest we head on over to Discogs and read through those liner notes together (click to images 2 and 3). If you’re a fan, perhaps also check out these demos and extras that were part of that anniversary reissue.

And so concludes our mini spotlight theme. Stay frosty and/or firey, all.

• Bandcamp: Cirith Ungol – Frost and Fire
• Discogs: Cirith Ungol – Frost and Fire

[1]Well, Charles Boyle at least says this.
[2]The others being Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell II and Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains.
[3]Fun fact: All of Smoulder’s album covers are also done by Whelan, and both of their LPs either reference or feature Moorcock.

Here comes my 24th music album: Overcharged and Unlimited

It's available on #Bandcamp, #Ampwall, #Mirlo, #JamCoop and more and all links are available here: https://djomni.page/overcharged

And the TI-80 still sucks. #PowerMetal #HeavyMetal #GameMusic

I used to have a radioshow called Power & Glory... I did 70 episodes from 2019 to 2023 and it took me so much work (and time that i didn't have) but i was so proud, as i had always wanted to work on the radio.
Well, the radio station, Gimme Metal, had to close its doors on spring 2023, and most of the djs continued their endeavours somewhere else. I just couldn't.
I hope to have something else to show soon, but in the meantime, you can listen some of the old shows on https://zombiestation.de every tuesday at 20:00 CET, for some nice power metal :)

_

Antes tenía un programa de radio llamado Power & Glory... hice 70 episodios entre 2019 y 2023. Me llevó mucho trabajo (y tiempo del que ando escasa), pero estaba muy orgullosa, porque siempre quise trabajar en la radio.
Bueno, la emisora, Gimme Metal, tuvo que cerrar en primavera de 2023, y la mayoría de djs continuaron con sus programas en otra parte, pero yo no fui capaz.
Espero poder enseñaros algo nuevo pronto, pero mientras tanto, se pueden escuchar algunos de mis antiguos episodios en https://zombiestation.de/ cada martes a las 20:00 CET, 2 horas de power metal majo :)

It’s #TuneTuesday and I get to post #SciFiSongs?!

I have never been able to get into another Veonity album, but 2016’s Into the Void gives me the #SciFi tingles and takes me to a different world. Killer falsetto, fantastic melodies, and some really cool bass lines. You’ll probably think I’m nuts, but this is probably a top 10 all-time #PowerMetal album for me.

Veonity - Heart On Fire
https://song.link/i/1183481836

Helloween - Halloween: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOAl0enE7kI

Somewhere in the endless darkness of the Teutonic forest lurk the dark spirits of hair metal...

#PowerFriday #powermetal #hairmetal
#JukeboxFridayNight
#SaintsSinnersSpirits

Metal Blade Video New Ensiferum video for "Fatherland" playing NOW! #ensiferum #folkmetal #powermetal #metal http://dlvr.it/TFZNCQ LinkInBio for More #MetalBladeRecords #HeavyMetal #Metal

NEW INTERVIEW

Recently, I had the privilege of sitting down with the incredibly talented vocalist #GiadaJadeEtro and the versatile guitarist/vocalist #FedericoMondelli of the Italian #powermetal band #FrozenCrown. Our conversation revolved around their highly-anticipated fifth #album, #WarHearts, scheduled for release in October on #NapalmRecords

#HeavyMetal #MusicJournalism #Blog #Blogger #FreelanceJournalism #independantwriting

https://mickbirchallreview.blogspot.com/2024/09/interview-with-frozen-crown.html

#introduction Bonjour, je suis un producteur de musique avec handicap qui produit du #eurodance #UKhardcore & #powermetal #electronique. #intro #intros #presentation

Je suis un grand fan de #MTVMusicGenerator (connu sous le nom de #Music2000 en Europe) sur la première #Playstation.

Tous mes liens musicaux sont disponible sur mon site web à l'addresse https://dreamofomnimaga.page .

Mon profil francophone pour la fédiverse c'est https://qlub.social/@doomni .

#Introduction Heya, I am a disabled #eurodance, #italodisco, #UKhardcore & #electronic #powermetal #music producer. #intro #intros #presentation

I'm a user and big fan of #MTVMusicGenerator A.K.A #Music2000 for the original #Playstation and I am also into many other #metal and #pop subgenres.

All my music links and releases info is available at my website at https://dreamofomnimaga.page/en.html including some TIDAL, Youtube Music and Deezer playlists.

Some hashtags I like:

#art #Rembrandt #Escher #digitalart

#music #jazz #classical #powermetal #musictheory #WorldMusic

#science #JWST #space #relativity #blackholes

#COVID #VaccinesSaveLives

#Judaism (disclaimer: I am NOT Jewish) #Torah #Kabbalah

#politics #DemocraticSocialist #TrumpSucks #ElectDemocrats #RacialJustice

#LGBTQIA #aromantic #asexual #aplatonic #transrights

Will add more as I remember them!!!

I never did write an #introduction post when I first joined, I think that was during an exodus from Facebook.

So, to make up for my feral human level social skills, I'm Rob originally from North Wales now living in Leeds. I'm an artist and graphic designer with an interest in #Gardening #Permaculture and #WoodWorking

I like #Punk and #Powermetal as well as various other acousti-nonsense. I'm really looking forward to using Mastodon and exploring the #Fediverse

Hola, recién aterrizado. :3 Hace mucho que no hago una introducción, así que acá va.

#introduction #introducción #presentacion

Luciano, clase 1986, de Junín (BA, Argentina), informático fracasado, videogamer cuasi retro, fan de la lucha libre, el heavy metal, baterista, laburante de hospital público, anti-elitista, straight edge.

Ah, y soy uno de esos raros argentinos a los que no les gusta el mate. xD

¿Qué es lo que pueden esperar ver acá? Entre otras cosas, posts de...

* #Fútbol, especialmente el #FútbolDeAscenso
* #HeavyMetal, en especial las ramas #HeavyMetalClásico #PowerMetal, #MetalProgresivo #ProgressiveMetal
* #Wrestling (#WWE, #AEW, #ImpactWrestling, etcétera)
* #Batería
* #Ciencia y #Escepticismo
* #GamingRetro (fundamentalmente los FPS onda #Doom, #Quake, y especialmente #Unreal)
* GamingDevelopment (uno de mis sueños frustrados siempre fue ser desarrollador de videojuegos)
* #Política de #Argentina

Y alguna otra cosa que me parezca interesante.

También en este muro es muy probable que algunas de las cosas que diga sean:
a) sarcasmo/ironía
b) boludeces sin sentido
c) chistes pavos de los que deberían reírse aunque lo más probable es que no se rían porque mis chistes son así de malos (?)
d) sátira

Y que habrá una gran cantidad de retooteos y joseos. Si no les caben ninguna de las dos cosas, lo lamento.

Están avisados. (?)