Dark Parade (LP)

Few bands in the history of the heavy metal underground have a story as remarkable, improbable, or uplifting as that of Cirith Ungol. Formed in Ventura, California, in the early 1970s, Cirith Ungol created a sound the world had never experienced before. Rather than passively channeling their influences, the band was driven to forge an altogether heavier, darker, more apocalyptic sound. It was obscure and arcane, mysterious and eccentric, epic and expansive, but most of all unfailingly, bone-crushingly heavy, dark and doom-filled. On Dark Parade, Cirith Ungol have created an unrelenting triumph of pessimism and pain. The album is propulsive and insistent, reflecting the band's love for metal, instinct to destroy, and disgust for mankind. "The band has always had the dual personality torn between fantasy and doom related themes," furthers Garven. "As the world spirals out of control, the doom side of this personality has ascended -- an unrelenting cacophony of Tim's prophetic view of mankind's twisted future." Annihilation has rarely sounded so good.