Frost and Fire is the debut album by the American heavy metal band Cirith Ungol. Its music is generally faster and more simplistic than that of King of the Dead, which saw the band begin to adopt a doom metal style influenced heavily by power metal.[1]
| Frost and Fire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover art by Michael Whelan | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 1, 1981 | |||
| Recorded | April 1980 | |||
| Studio | Gold Mine Studios, Ventura, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 31:24 | |||
| Label | Liquid Flames Records | |||
| Producer | Cirith Ungol | |||
| Cirith Ungol chronology | ||||
| ||||
Album information
editFrost and Fire was produced by Cirith Ungol and originally self-released through the band's own record label—Liquid Flames Productions—in 1981. The album was re-released in 1984 by Enigma Records, re-released again along with King of the Dead on one CD by One Way Records in 1995, and finally re-released again in September 1999 on Metal Blade Records. A bootleg picture disc version of this LP, limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, also exists. While Michael "Flint" Vujejia is credited as the bass player on this album, it has been confirmed in several interviews that Greg Lindstrom was actually the bassist on this album.[2] In Brazil the lp Frost and Fire was released with the cover of the King of the Dead. (1985).
Critical reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 8/10[4] |
In 2005, Frost and Fire was ranked number 362 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[5]
Track listing
editAll songs written by Greg Lindstrom. The seventh track, "Maybe That's Why", is an instrumental; however, lyrics were included for the song on the inner sleeve of the original vinyl release.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Frost and Fire" | 3:35 |
| 2. | "I'm Alive" | 4:58 |
| 3. | "A Little Fire" | 3:46 |
| 4. | "What Does It Take" | 3:36 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Edge of a Knife" | 4:29 |
| 6. | "Better Off Dead" | 4:45 |
| 7. | "Maybe That's Why" (instrumental) | 6:15 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 8. | "Cirith Ungol" (live) | 8:19 |
Personnel
edit- Cirith Ungol
- Tim Baker – lead and backing vocals
- Jerry Fogle – guitars
- Greg Lindstrom – guitars, synthesizers, e-bow, backing vocals, bass (uncredited)
- Michael "Flint" Vujea – bass
- Robert Garven – drums, backing vocals
- Production
- Tim Nelson – engineer
- Allen Zentz – mastering
- Randall L. Jackson – executive producer
References
edit- ^ a b "Tim Baker Interview". Clrvynt. November 3, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
- ^ Lefevre, Patrick (April 2002). "Cirith Ungol interview". Iron Wolf webzine. Angelfire. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
- ^ Huey, Steve. "Cirith Ungol – Frost and Fire review". AllMusic. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
- ^ Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
- ^ Best of Rock & Metal - Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Rock Hard. 2005. p. 65. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.