Originally written for Exclaim.
* * *
Cirith Ungol were a Californian traditional heavy metal band that formed in 1972 and split up in 1992. The band members were all serious fans of sword and sorcery/high fantasy novels, drawing a great deal of musical influence from the genre. Their moniker was taken from Tolkien; in Elvish it means “Pass of the Spider” and refers to Shelob’s lair, where Gollum attempts to lead Frodo to his death. Servants of Chaos was originally released back in 2001 and was …