Passing through the shadowy eternities of isolation, ailment and the walled-in psyche of grief’s possession the pandemic inflamed march of death, injustice and disfunction abounding was intense enough that one’d viably witnessed society burning alive alongside any nearby forests these last few years. Many would succumb to the shock of change alone yet our legendry-alive and kicking by way of universal admiration and inspire Ventura, California-based heavy metal band Cirith Ungol chose the path of wisdom one’d expect at this point: To craft song after song readily beyond the release of their fifth album, absorbing the doomed gravitas of endtime imminence into this darkest-yet sixth full-length. No question about it, ‘Dark Parade‘ took a lot out of ’em but what becomes evident from the very first strike of the shield herein is that the ceaseless plow of cataclysm inspired a miraculous, from-their-very-marrow sort of work which nigh elegantly dissolves the weight of the world one flurry of blazon riff and howling soul at a time. With so much vital personae and personage taken away from the damned art of heavy metal these last few years this heavy-headed dance around fire will have to be the salve and the shove-along the path for those who’d keep it heavy and damned weird going forth.

Twenty years ago the only way a die-hard fan could scrape off a little extra, squeeze a bit more black blood out of the legacy of Cirith Ungol beyond the circa ’99 Metal Blade CD reissues of the first three records was to hop onto a trash heap like eBay and hope the copy of ‘Servants of Chaos‘ you won for ~twenty five bucks didn’t end up arriving as a CD-r in a Ziploc bag. Today we have it way better with the vast majority of their history archived, restored (numerous times even) and mused upon. Back then, as a new fan trying to dive in, there was little faith or precedence set that these works would be intentionally re-introduced to the next generation after their somewhat embittered exit from the industry in the early 90’s. If we can make one small argument for the soulless, hapless digital age that has since long descended upon us it is that it undoubtedly brought the legacies of United States 70’s-to-80’s unsung heavy metal outliers like these folks to ears around the globe and, as it turns out, most folks found ’em inarguably important and inspiring during the mid-to-late 2000’s as the upsurge in retro-revivalist traditional heavy and doom metal became perpetual. Their legacy was surely brought back into focus by after-the-fact fandom but that shouldn’t suggest the core appeal wasn’t the product of their own will and sacrifice — Cirith Ungol‘s reputable catalog came with a big, memorable personality attached which has yet endured within every recording since reformation, including ‘Dark Parade‘.

We don’t have every bit of what they’d recorded between forming somewhere nearby 1971 and their first public-spread tape (‘The Orange Album‘, 1978) but for sure the Cirith Ungol you’d recognize today had been glued together by 1979 when unmistakable vocalist Tim Baker had on-boarded for a second demo tape (‘Cirith Ungol‘, 1979), likely shopping around with no reasonable options at the time as they were just a few years away from self-financing and releasing their first full-length album ‘Frost and Fire’ (1981). I think the point to make beyond the usual discourse is that these folks put in the work, developed their own original gang, and made it happen despite little commercial interest in their increasingly over-the-top style. It doesn’t seem they’d ever had it easy along the way but ‘The King of the Dead‘ (1984) and ‘One Foot in Hell‘ (1986) have long since proven timeless and defining works not only in terms of the band’s own signature but the inspiration served for ‘epic’ heavy metal, heavy rock, and traditional doom metal bands the world over. They’d put their lives into it for those first four records and the reward, for what its worth, is immortality in the brains of folks like me.

The wyrd will outlive every conqueror. — Since their split circa 1991 and reformation in 2015 Cirith Ungol have proven they’ve still got it, not only through live performances but now two full-lengths, an mLP, and a live album which’ve done well to hold up next to their classics-era work. The high praise lobbed at their “comeback” record ‘Forever Black‘ (2020) was neither lip service for nostalgia nor blind fandom, at least not in my case as that record landed at #24 on my Top 100 Albums of the Year, but I could certainly gripe over the production values in hindsight. What’d been more important at the time was the extra realization, the bigger point that the personality and sound of the band couldn’t (and hadn’t) be replicated by anyone else since 1991, that their influence had clearly spread over the course of fifty years but no one else had come close to aping their sound. There is and will only ever be one Cirith Ungol and holy cow this thought’d been reinforced by the down-stroked riffs and fire hailing shout-along charge of opener “Velocity (S.E.P.)“, as if to confirm up front that, yes, there is still nothing like this. They’re still approaching their craft with their own early-to-mid 80’s era level of songcraft though this has a kinda Priest-ly kick to it with plenty of leads trading off, a gallop-sped pace without the same gallop to its main guitar progression which may as well be a signature chunk of their oeuvre.

What those in power give up in their process of all-reaving is humanity, the indiscriminate scramble for wealth leaves all with purpose draining and dignity lost. This is essentially the first and most potently stated read-between the lines statement from ‘Dark Parade‘ as I’d rode through the first couple of songs yet the real march from Mordor doesn’t really start to buzz within my brains until the first epic strides of clear standout “Sailor On The Seas of Fate” stroll out. A slow and oozing dirge with its organ grinding like a black cloud in the distance this piece is remarkable not only for the crack of the riffs and wailing edges but for the dark and extreme wash of the doomed atmosphere generated, I don’t know that there are any other folks who’ve been at it this long making music this damned haunting. The one stray observation I could tend the garden with here is that without focusing on the galloping Maiden-esque charge of their past few albums Cirith Ungol are still unmistakably themselves, I think Tim Baker has only improved his craft and presence over the years, though this mid-portion of the album (nearby “Sacrifice”) has this mid-80’s kinda thrashing Trouble-esque lunge to some of the riffs.

There is no rest, no relief from the piledriving mid-to-slow paced heavy metal of ‘Dark Parade‘, I mean ‘One Foot in Hell’ has “100mph” to break things up over on that Side B but here we’re driven right into the “War Eternal”-esque single “Looking Glass“. This is another featured piece which is heavy on the lead guitar skills, not uncommon for Cirith Ungol‘s guitarists but it does feel like they’ve taken a minute to give this record a little extra swagger, a finer touch that keeps its second half buzzing with interest even if we’re trudging through a sea of sludgy riffs and dementia per the title track and one of my favorite pieces of narrative gloom on the record, “Distant Shadows”; As much of a soldiered up, all guns blazing spire-shattering kick into gear the full listen promises to be up front by the time we’re neck deep in the second half the light left in the world has gone out. The tone of Side B is collectively cut from an obsidian mood even if taking these songs piecemeal doesn’t oppress the senses quite as much the effect of the second half is beyond sombre as we get saunter through the last few pieces. In the grand scheme of things it is an effective turn taken through the course of the full listen but it’d been unexpected as these folks tend to go for the throat down to the very last song and here we’re left in mourning.

As the band’s announcement of this album coincides with the suggestion 2024 will see the end of their gig as a touring band we’ll have to treat ‘Dark Parade‘ as a potential swan song from the group in some respects. This doesn’t inherently change my reaction or rating of the experience as a whole but does suggest some aspect of what makes this sixth full-length album so potently dark and damaging was created with energy on borrowed time or fading spirits. I’ve no real gripe with this record as a whole, it is signature Cirith Ungol with some new things to say, a palpably low mood with a still rousing 70’s-per the mid-80’s heavy metal cut to its jib and the canonical spiritus of the band is enhanced by its inclusion rather than perturbed. Most of my fixation was set upon Side A to start but the effect of the full listen amounts to a more complete thought, a downward descent and a different record than before. As a longtime fan I’ve my own bias to insert here, considering this an essential one-of-a-kind band and one of the best of all time, keep that in mind. A very high recommendation.

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