''King of the Dead'' is the second album by the American heavy metal band

Cirith Ungol In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and ...

. It was self-produced by the band and released in July 1984 on

Enigma Records Enigma Records (also known as Enigma Entertainment Corporation) was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. History Enigma Records launched as a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/dis ...

. It was re-released in September 1999 on

Metal Blade Records Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distrib ...

. Band member Robert Garven declared in an interview:

"''King of the Dead'' was our best album, the reason was that we had total control over it. Every album could have been this good if we could have exercised complete control over its production and other things. This is the album which I feel is our best effort. The reason the long wait between albums is because when you are financing them yourselves, you have to come up with the money to pay for things like studio time. Plus being on all these independent labels their time tables are slower. I also did all the layout and design of the first three covers, all this while we were all working full-time trying to sponsor the dream."

Guitarist Greg Lindstrom, who left the band in 1982, two years before the release of this album, said:

Atom Smasher,' 'Cirith Ungol' and 'Death of the Sun' were all songs we had written together in the mid 70's, and 'Finger of Scorn' was one of my songs that the band used with my blessing."

The cover of

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...

's novel "Bane of the Black Sword" acts as the album's cover: it is titled "King of the Dead" and was painted by

Michael Whelan Michael Whelan (born 29 June 1950) is an Americans, American artist of imaginative Realism (arts), realism. For more than 30 years, he worked as an illustrator, specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art. Since the mid-1990s, he has ...

. In 2019, ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...

'' ranked it as the 14th-best power metal album of all time.

Track listing

All songs written by Cirith Ungol, except where noted. ;Side one #"Atom Smasher" (Cirith Ungol, Greg Lindstrom) – 4:12 #"Black Machine" – 4:16 #"Master of the Pit" – 7:09 #"King of the Dead" – 6:49 ;Side two #"Death of the Sun" – 3:54 #"Finger of Scorn" (Lindstrom) – 8:34 #" Toccata in Dm" (

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

) – 4:37 #"Cirith Ungol" (Cirith Ungol, Lindstrom) – 6:24 ;Remastered CD edition bonus track #"Last Laugh" (live) – 4:22

Personnel

;Cirith Ungol *Tim Baker – vocals *Jerry Fogle – guitars *Michael ("Flint") Vujea – bass *Robert Garven – drums, percussion ;Production *Tim Nelson – engineer *Chris Bellman – mastering at Allen Zentz Mastering, San Clemente, California

References

{{Authority control 1984 albums Enigma Records albums Cirith Ungol albums Albums with cover art by Michael Whelan