Cirith Ungol

The Californian heavy metal band Cirith Ungol are deeply immersed in the world of doom metal, a genre so arcane it's difficult for the casual observer to penetrate the various subtle sub-genres. Heavily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien and Michael Morlock, Cirith Ungol's music explores a fantasmagorical underworld inhabited by mythical beings and dark characters. The bands' two early albums were released on the US Enigma label, who parted company with the band following lacklustre sales performance.

Speaking about their their second album 'King of the Dead', drummer Robert Garven gave an insight into the struggles the band faced: "This is the album which I feel is our best effort. The reason for the long wait between albums is because you are financing them yourselves paying for things like studio time. I did all the layout and design of the first three covers whilst we were all working full time trying to sponsor the dream."

After two further albums failed to make an impact on the charts the band became disenchanted with the music business and split up. With the resurgence of interest in prog rock the band reformed in 2015 and have since made appearances at specialist music festivals.