Following their 2019 live album come back, CIRITH UNGOL looks like they are here to stay. In 2020, the year of our plague, they released their first studio album in 19 years, “Forever Black.” Bad timing, great album. They quickly followed up with an EP, “Half Past Human,” in 2021—also not great timing but no one knew when and if all that Covid shit was going to end. Then the boys looked around, took stock of the world, tallied up various tragic life events and said something like, ‘This would make a hell of dark album.’ And so was born the “Dark Parade.” The band’s sixth full-length studio album was released on October 20, 2023 via Metal Blade. It is dark, down, and mean.

Again showcasing Michael Wheland’s interpretation of Michael Moorcock’s iconic Elric of Melnibone, the cover promises an heroic rampage through the realms of Law and Chaos—and while the album certainly delivers on that level it also has a metaphorically edge, suggesting that we are all Elric on a savage journey, a dark parade if you will, through a world destroyed.

If you were expecting ballads and love songs, if you were expecting CIRITH UNGOL to maybe sit down and take a breather, sorry to disappoint. It’s as if the band themselves took that bitter elixir that Elric would take before ripping through throngs of his enemies and then doubled down with a sonic version of Stormbringer, eating the souls of the vanquished to oversurge the amps. Maybe it’s the clean production, maybe it’s sheer viscera, but this is one of the most aggressive albums CIRITH UNGOL has ever crafted.

The album takes off at the approximate rate of . . . well, Solar Energetic Particles with “Velocity (S.E.P.)” For those of you who don’t have the internet or who rely on album reviewers for their research, S.E.P. are energy particles that burst from the sun and then pick up acceleration through science and flare towards the earth at the speed of light and then penetrate the upper atmosphere where more science happens. So, yeah, the first track is like that.

Track two, “Relentless,” is a two-fisted Doom assault. Track three, “Sailor on the Sea of Fate,” expands to Prog proportions with an acoustic intro, ambient sailing sounds, and multiple epic movements. An eight-minute adventure through sea and terror. Best track, hands down. “Sacrifice,” track four, gets all Mediterranean with Spanish guitars, salsa flourishes, cowbells, and a glorious solo. Some cool inventiveness going on with this one.

“Looking Glass” is reminiscent, to my ears at least, of “Nobody’s Fault” by AEROSMITH, especially with the whole apocalypse vibe going on. Title-track, “Dark Parade,” is a brooding march with percussion so vivid that it made me take off my headphones and find out what my cats broke. Nothing, as it turns out, that was just Robert Garven fucking with me. Shattered eardrums aside, the best moment on this track is the drop at the 3:43 mark when the riffage cranks to 11.

 Track seven, “Distant Shadows” is a down-tuned chugfest and the final track, “Down Below” goes classic on us with more acoustics, some choral backing vocals, and black shades of Doom. A great closer.

 I was a bit hesitant about this album what with the title similar to the “The Black Parade” and, to be honest, I was wondering if the band really had their heart in it. Turns out I should just keep my doubts to myself. Ironically, CIRITH UNGOL’s “Dark Parade” has restored my faith in the indefatigable nature of metal.