Frost and Fire (album)

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Frost and Fire is also the title of the 1965 debut album by The Watersons.

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Frost and Fire

Studio album by Cirith Ungol

Released

Liquid Flames Records
Enigma Records
One Way Records
Metal Blade Records

Producer

Cirith Ungol

Professional reviews

All Music Guide Link

Cirith Ungol chronology

Frost and Fire
(1981)

King of the Dead
(1984)

Frost and Fire is the debut album by the heavy metal band Cirith Ungol. Its music is generally faster and more simplistic than on King of the Dead, which saw the band adopt a doom metal style influenced heavily by progressive rock. The album was produced by Cirith Ungol. Originally released by Cirith Ungol on Liquid Flames Records in 1980. It was re-released in 1981 by Enigma Records, re-released with King of the Dead on one CD by One Way Records in 1995 and re-released again in September 1999 on Metal Blade Records. There also exist bootleg picture disc version of this LP, limited to 500 hand numbered copies.

Robert Garven in an interview:

We wanted to make it big, but all of our music was so heavy and dark, we thought we would use our most commercial material on Frost and Fire, so that we would get air time and stuff. Although all the lyrics and some of the music on Frost and Fire were written by Greg, almost all of our songs over the years were a collaborative effort, some times "I" would even hum out parts until we got it right. Everything had to be perfect, sometimes leading to fist fights over riffs. Anyway, it just turned out Greg's songs had the more commercial sound. After Frost and Fire came out it was only played a couple of times on the LA radio station KLOS because everyone said it was way too heavy..... So we figured FUCK IT!!! If they think that is heavy why are we holding back? Let's show them something really heavy!!! We wrote about thiry songs with Greg that have never been released, some not even on tape. It was only understandable that we put some on King of the Dead. Greg did not leave until after Frost and Fire, so we were writing songs up to the day he left.

The cover is painted by Michael Whelan and called Stormbringer. According to Greg, it is one of the best album covers. Greg also says in an interview:

One reviewer in Kerrang! called Frost And Fire the worst heavy metal album ever recorded! I think a lot of critics at the time just didn't know who to compare us to and tended to dismiss us. But the fan reaction from all over the world was great. Unfortunately, our albums didn't have very good distribution and were often hard to find in stores. And that's part of the reason I quit the band. I felt I had reached a turning point in my life after graduating college and spending 10 years in the band. It was more than a year after Frost and Fire had been released, and sales were decent, but nothing was really happening for us, and I felt it was time to move on, which I did with much regret.