Customer Reviews

Paradise Lost

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was one the founding members and drummer of Cirith Ungol. This was our last album. We were treated so poorly by the record company that it broke the band up after 22 years. We had little or no artistic control over the production of this album, and even though we paid a big time lawyer $$$ to review the contract, we unknowingly sold the rights to album forever. When all our other CDs were re-released by Metal Blade of Germany, Restless the company that owned the rights to Paradise Lost, refused to let this cd be re-released. We were not even contacted by the current company releasing it, and will not receive any royalties from its sale. I even tried to contact them and received no reply.

To add insult to injury our singer Tim Baker went to a local store and had to buy a copy of the CD. I urge you not to buy this CD and instead look for our other remastered CD's "Frost & FIre" & "King of the Dead" & "Servants of Chaos" these are still in print in Europe (only!) and they were the only projects that we had artistic control over.

I was so upset by this project and its production and aftermath I swore "That I would never touch another drumstick or play drums, if it meant being in the same business as these people". Even though we have been offered many reunion tours and dates I have kept my oath, and expect that I will keep it until death...

Playing drums and Cirith Ungol was my life and passion and it is sad that such a great band with such untapped talent and potential had such little support while other bands with so little talent became huge commercial successes.

Sincerely,

Robert Garven
Ventura, CA

I absolutely LOVE this cd. It's hard to find. At first I didn't like it. Over the years I have grown fond of it. Cirith Ungol is extremely UNIQUE. And I think a review says they are a rip off of Judas Priest. Not even close. The singer is raspy in a cool way. He does nothing remotely Judas Priest or a typical 80's Scream. In fact I'm rather shocked on how clear and clean some of the guitar chords are. This cd sounds modern to me, but old. Does that make sense? This cd will put you in a environment that is like a fantasy world of Movies like Lord of the Rings.

Much of their music is based off of Lord of the Rings. IF they were still around, I'm sure they would have been Extremely popular when the movies came out.

Cirith Ungol had a weird name. Their managers didn't do crap to promote them. They failed to launch Cirith Ungol on important tours and to help market cirith ungol. They did almost nothing for the band. The band struggled and had to find money to produce cd's out of their own pockets. This was their last cd. Sadly they are no longer a band.

I love the Song "Chaos Rising" This is an epic/dramatical song that is slow and speeds up to some really amazing guitar work.

There is no other Band who will ever sound like these guys again. I prefer these guys over most of this new crap coming out.

These guys rock, and rock hard. They don't really sound like any other band to me, but they are definitely worth listening to. This album is quite a bit more polished than their first two offerings ("One Foot In Hell" and "King of the Dead"), which were very raw and very fast, the lyrics barely discernible.

"Paradise Lost" still keeps some of the raw power of their earlier albums, but is more melodic and tempered. 'Join the Legion' starts the album off proper with a good heavy song, then goes a little more campy with 'The Troll', kind of thrown in for comic relief so to speak. 'Fire' is an Arthur Brown cover song, but it's one of the best on here...you'll go around yelling "I am the god of Hellfire, and I bring you...FIRE!!" for days. I doubt seriously the "Cray World of Arthur Brown" ever envisioned such a heavy rendition of their song when they wrote it back in the sixties!! Things drop off a bit with 'Heaven Help Us' about the world's troubles and a plea for us to consider what we're doing to it, but then comes another of my favorite songs on here: 'Before the Lash'. This should be a classic, remembered up there with some of the great bands, and it is a perfect blend of the "moderately-slow but very heavy" style that makes this album so good, with some heavy lyrics to ponder about Man's cursed eternal life, "...to slave in endless fire, to cringe before the lash." Next, it gets a little fluffy with 'Go It Alone' and "..being born with a six string in his hand...". 'Nuff said. But, it picks up again with some more slow-but-heavy hitters with 'Chaos Rising' (hard to say if it's my second- or third-favorite on this album), then 'Fallen Idols' is a little drawn-out but good, and then the album ends with Chaos reigning in 'Paradise Lost'. But just so you know, this song is not an epic or anything grand like the title might imply (ie.Dante's 'Paradise Lost' it is NOT.)

So, this album is definitely worth having and I keep bringing it out from time to time when I get the chaos urge. Enjoy!

With all due respect to Mr. Garven, I've always loved this album. Yes, it includes a few clunkers like 'Go It Alone' (Cirith Ungol does Hair Metal- ugh!) but it also contains some of their most brilliant moments, particularly the incredible trilogy of 'Chaos Rising', 'Fallen Idols', and 'Paradise Lost'. These three plus 'Join the Legion' and 'Before the Lash' can sit proudly alongside their bst material from other albums. And of course Crazy World of Arthur Brown's 'Fire' was the perfect song for CU to cover. Musically, I give this album 4 stars, but I'm knocking a star off for this particular pressing because of the shoddy packaging. The disc comes in a flimsy digipack; I'm not one of those people that hate the digi format, but you can tell this particular one was made on the cheap. There's no booklet and no lyrics included, just the basic credits on the back cover and a quick band bio inside the front cover. It's a real shame, as the album deserved a better re-release than this. If you're on a budget or unsure about this album, this is an inexpensive way to check it out, but if you can afford the pricey original press (long out of print) I'd suggest you get that one instead. An incredible record held back from reaching its full potential.

If you have the tape, it has an extra track on it, that's DEATH METAL. Yes, for one tune, Cirith Ungol went death. Can't figure out why it's not on the CD.

This CD is cool (Tim Baker still sings, 'nuff said) but not really in league with the 3 earlier discs. Tim has a love him or hate him vocal style, but he sounds like noone else. On earth. Period.

Michael Whelan still does the cool artwork. Part of the problem was on Paradise lost, only Tim Baker (singer) and Robert Garven (drums) were left from the origional band. The bass playing of Michael Flint was gone, as well as the guitars of Jerry Fogle and Greg Lindstrom. It's hard for a band to lose 3/5s of the origional members and be the same. After all, these guys ain't Skynyrd. They're a really good metal band from California whom borrowed their name from J.R.R. Tolkien.

Overall it's a very good album, just not excellent by Cirith Ungol standards. Maybe it'll get re-released with ALL the tracks one day.

I am a fan of Cirith Ungol from way back. My two favorite albums of theirs were the first ones -- "Frost & Fire" and "King of the Dead." I never listened to this one much when it was originally released, so I bought this Noble Rot pressing from Amazon. First, the music is good, but not quite what you think of when you think Cirith Ungol. This is obviously an attempt to make CU sound more commercially accessible. The production is crisp, and several of the songs are almost run-of-the-mill metal for the era. A few songs do stand out to me as good solid CU stuff, but about half of the album feels like filler. Nevertheless, as a fan of the band, I do enjoy listening to it, and agree with many of the comments of previous reviewers.

That said, allow me to submit my review of the packaging, which is why I'm here. First, and perhaps worst of all, Noble Rot has seen fit to not only *stretch* the original cover image, but *crop* it! A Michael Whelan cover -- and it's stretched and cropped! Ugh! Add insult to injury by the fact that they have put their logo ON THE FRONT COVER, as if the image was not defaced enough. It's a single fold digipack, with sort of a dull, matte finish, no booklet, and they put the song list on the inside under the cheap plastic CD holder, so you can't just look at the back to see what song is playing. Instead, in a completely bonehead move, they put the old interior liner notes on the BACK COVER! Good grief. What a mess. If the original pressing of this CD is available to you at a lower price, buy it instead. I'll hang onto this only because I already paid full price for it, but had I known the quality of the package, I would have looked for the original pressing. Maybe I can save someone else the same anguish.

But, Cirith Ungol still rocks! The sad days of record companies destroying great bands continues to this day, but thankfully good bands always leave good music behind. If you're looking for a place to start with this band, I recommend checking out "Frost & Fire" and "King of the Dead."

love this band grow up with them not for everybodys taest but if your hardcore then you'll love them

Growing up in the Metal laced eighties was a fun time...
I had heard of this band and me, being a LOTR fan. I just had to go check out their music or a show--I really never did like them much but, they had a cool name and the album covers were really cool too.
I do remember seeing a lot of heavy metal bands--even if, I was in cloud of illegal smoke. I would either like the band or not--Cirith Ungol was one of those typical 80's metal bands.
There must have been dozens of no name bands back then-and most of them where forgetable.
I always thought Cirith Ungol reminded me of a Judas Priest rip off--with a really good metal name.
I give them three stars---not because of the music but, they bring me back to a very fun time in my life.