#tim baker

Cirith Ungol: One Foot in Hell (1986)

Never the most widely known of heavy metal bands to begin with (although surely one of the most instantly recognizable) Ventura, CA's Cirith Ungol were living on borrowed time by the release of their third album, One Foot in Hell, 40 years ago.

Whereas 1981's Frost and Fire would go down as a bona fide American castle metal classic and '84's King of the Dead offered its fair share of worthy material -- as sonically distinctive as it was hopelessly uncommercial -- this LP from '86 sounded just plain tired.

And hopelessly old-fashioned (remember Cirith Ungol's roots dated to the early '70s!), which proved to be the kiss of death for most forward-thinking '80s metal-heads, drunk on a genre that had exploded into the mainstream with a seemingly infinite variety of new bands and styles.

Piss-poor production, lacking in depth and dynamics, certainly didn't help matters; saddling unusually energetic gallops like "Blood and Iron" and "100 M.P.H." with a thin, anemic mix that could hardly compete with the muscular thrash recordings of the period.

These same issues also afflict plodding efforts like "The Fire" and "Doomed Planet," which exposed singer Tim Baker -- always an acquired taste -- to increasing criticism as his strangled rasps and shrieks had been demoted, over the years, from lovable curiosity to professional liability.

Note how on the Michael Moorcock-inspired "Nadsokor" (named after the fictional "City of Beggars" in his dark fantasy Elric of Melniboné saga), Baker's contributions are rendered ghostlike, almost unintelligible, they're buried so deep in the mix.

So the responsibility for rescuing Cirith Ungol's latest "quest" fell largely on the shoulders of guitarist Jerry Fogle, who fought through these sonic constraints to deliver some of his most inspired, epic, classically-inspired solos -- particularly on "War Eternal."

And just when you least expect it, the dark, weird alchemy of Cirith Ungol (completed by bassist Michael 'Flint' Vujea and drummer Robert Garven) is rekindled for the title track's foreboding staccato riffs and the irresistible, dual-paced highlight, "Chaos Descends."

Now, if you think I'm being too harsh, know that I was even harsher in this old All-Music Guide review of One Foot in Hell; but what sounded terribly archaic next to metallic trends in in 1986, inevitably projects a desirable "vintage" quality for nostalgic metal heads today.

However, belated reappraisals obviously did Cirith Ungol no good 40 years ago, and the band's already cult-level stature continued on its steep and irreversible slide towards an ignoble and almost unheralded demise five years later.

Featuring that homewrecker, Tim from IT.

My good pal @gettinggsnowedunder made me realize I hadn't posted photos to Tumblr yet of this! This is my first tattoo. At a Hey Rosetta! show in Cleveland back in like 2011/2012, I asked Tim Baker to write one of my favorite bits of lyrics down with the intention of getting it tattooed on myself. Well, it took me ~15 years but I did it!

First pic is shortly after getting it in December 2025, the other two are from today so you can see how it's healed and settled in.