Cirith Ungol Announce New Album; Release Date October 20th on Metal Blade Records

Metal Blade Records have announced Cirith Ungol's new studio album Dark Parade which will be released on October 20th 2023. Pre-orders are available HERE.

The band say of the new album:

"Band members lost close relatives and we struggled as best we could through the pandemic which ravaged the earth's population and economies," drummer Rob Garven notes. "As horrifying as it was, it was the perfect backdrop for our doom-laden message of a world on the edge of destruction."

With all eight demos finished -- which are included on the expanded edition of the album -- CIRITH UNGOL started recording Dark Parade in October 2022. The end result is an unrelenting triumph of pessimism and pain; a charred vista rooted in the crunch-and-crash templates of classic doom metal and NWOBHM but delivered with contemporary production and perspective. The album is propulsive and insistent, reflecting the band's love for metal, instinct to destroy, and disgust for mankind.

From the majestic eight-minute-long "Sailor On The Seas Of Fate," which starts with a reflective arpeggio and builds into a pounding, near-tribal volley before segueing into a bleak, slow burn of retribution and agony, to the final three movements of the "Dark Parade" saga (comprised of "Dark Parade," "Distant Shadows," and "Down Below"), CIRITH UNGOL's latest album offers a metallic soundtrack of societal decay and environmental collapse that foreshadows nothing less than total extinction.

The first single from Dark Parade is opening track "Velocity (S.E.P.)," a compact, mid-paced blast of crunching riffs and deft hooks that act as a microcosm for much of the doom-laden album. "While talking with [vocalist] Tim [Baker] and Rob about what kind of song was needed, a decision was made to stop doing the galloping chugs, as done many times on previous albums, and start doing down-picking chugs while keeping some sort of tie to the CIRITH UNGOL sound," reveals guitarist Jimmy Barraza. "Straying toward a Sabbath or Priest vibe is not far off and happens subconsciously."

The track is about promises made and debts paid. Faust and Robert Johnson both knew what to expect on their visit to the Crossroads - great rewards and great loss. A bit of suffering in Dante's Inferno will always remind us that the earthly pleasures we seek always come at a price. Sell your soul, take the deal, suffer the consequences.

"It's about what happens when we sell that which we hold dear," Baker notes. "Our soul -- if such a thing exists -- our dignity, pride, and whatever else we have that will help seal the deal in an endless pursuit of money, power, glory and dominion over others."

Tracklist

01 - Velocity (S.E.P)
02 - Relentless
03 - Sailor on the Seas of Fate
04 - Sacrifice
05 - Looking Glass
06 - Dark Parade          
07 - Distant Shadows    
08 - Down Below