ALBUM REVIEW: Cirith Ungol – All the Shadows

US heavy metal titans Cirith Ungol return with their seventh album. After the colossal later outputs such as “Forever Black” and “Dark Parade”, the bar is set high. Release is via No Remorse Records on the 30th of October.

Bracing us for impact with some drum fills before anthemic heavy metal riffs fire into action. Tim’s one-of-a-kind vocals quickly join the mix and immediately are my favourite part of this material. While things have changed in the lineup, leaving us with two original members and two Night Demon guys, it is easy to speculate that things might be different than before. It is a shame Greg and Jim are no longer handling guitars, it certainly feels a bit more modern in the riffing than “Dark Parade”, let alone the earlier albums. But with that said, the songwriting is still has some elements of the doomy, bleaker moments and the more epic heavy metal passages. I really loved the two post-reunion albums as well as the “Half Past Human” EP but this record does feel different. Tim’s vocals are inarguably superb but the guitars just feel too much like they’re pulling away from Cirith Ungol and utilising the Night Demon approach.

Sadly this goes from bad to worse with the strange inclusion of some Western elements, jaunty riffing and the sterilisation of the more doomy parts. Simply put, it feels like all of the creativity is in the vocals and the rest is just dragging along behind. If this were some new band I’d probably just turn it off. But the fact it is the legendary band that gave us “King of the Dead”, “One Foot in Hell” and the amazing “Forever Black” (an album that proved that the old guard could come back and still be on top form), it just feels like they are going through the motions here when they do not need to. It saddens me to hear one of my favourite bands go from pioneer and then back to leading the charge after a long hiatus only to then put out something meek and trite. Thankfully the second half of the album has a few more interesting moments where Rob’s drumming can be appreciated more, allowing the power and precision in his playing to be heard. The more epic lead guitar work in “Hollow Nimbus” is cool too. These bits show there is potential to be salvaged but alas this record simply did not cut it for me.

I am left feeling really underwhelmed by this record. Whereas I love the entire discography to date, this felt like something less than a Cirith Ungol album. There are good ideas, some great performances here and there but it just lacks that archaic and mystical heavy metal feeling that makes them such a unique band. Perhaps it’s due to half of the lineup being another band rather than Cirith Ungol or perhaps ideas have run thin with time. Realistically, I will not be revisiting this one but rather sticking to the first six LPs (along with various demos, lives etc). I wish I could enjoy this as much as I do literally everything else that the band has done, but I don’t. All of the five stars are for Tim’s amazing vocals, the saving grace of this slog. I have not enjoyed criticising one of my favourite bands, I am always proud to be a part of the legion, but this one just was not for me. Let’s hope album eight will put them back on track.