Review by ZeroSymbolic7188 for Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead (1984)

This is tough, because I like the music quite a bit, and I kept going back and forth on Tim Baker's vocal approach. I ultimately decided that there had to be somebody who could have done it better. There are a lot of good riffs, melodies, and grooves in this album, but you have to deal with Baker just being obnoxious. There are cases where not having the "best" vocals works out for a band. I don't want anyone other than Cronos singing in Venom, and if I'm listening to Manilla Road, I want Mark the Shark. Tim Baker does not have that charm, he's just annoying. I ultimately decided that the music is a 5/5 but Tim's vocal is a -2.5 penalty and put this thing right in the middle. No disrespect to Tim, it just doesn't work for me-it grates. 

So yeah in short; really great classic heavy metal here, tainted by an aggressively agitating vocalist. If you can tolerate Tim, you'll really love this.