History
The first official Cirith Ungol website ran from 1999 to 2003, managed by Robert Garven himself.
A successor appeared around 2004 as cirith-ungol.dragonight.de (archive), followed by truemetal.org/cirithungol (2007–2009). After that ended, I launched The Cirith Ungol Webpit in March 2010—an early fansite coded manually in PHP/MySQL, inspired by sites like The Iron Maiden Commentary and Black Sabbath Timeline. Bad Religion and Metallica is also great.
This current site is its modern successor, designed to be cleaner, dynamic, and mobile-friendly. It’s a work in progress—not a finished product.
After that site was discontinued, I volunteered to create a new site, so I created The Cirith Ungol Webpit, a fansite hand written in messy PHP/MySQL and launched it in March 2010. That site was very inspired by the comprehensiveness of The Iron Maiden Commentary and Black Sabbath Timeline.
This website launched more than five years later is an attempt to clean up the messyness a bit and to be more dynamic and mobile-friendly.
This website is an ongoing project and not a finished product.
Contributing to the website
Your contributions are always welcome! Have you spotted an error, missing information, or have something to add—like photos, videos, or stories? We’d love to hear from you. There are several ways to contribute:
- Leave comments on individual item pages
- Participate in the forum discussions
- Send an email directly to the webmaster
You can also help by sharing links to the site or leaving comments on pages. Have details about a location or building for our maps? Even better—just send it in!
Attribution & Copyright
We gather information and material from many sources—our own collection, fans, forums, Facebook groups, Wikipedia, Metal Archives, Discogs, and more. If something you contributed isn’t properly credited, let us know. We’re happy to add your name to the image, caption, filename, or wherever it belongs.
If you believe that your copyrighted material (image, text, audio, or YouTube video) has been used without permission, just contact us and we will remove it promptly.
Note:
We do not monetize our YouTube channel. All uploads are for historical and educational purposes only. If you’re an artist, label, or rights holder and want your content removed, just let us know—we’ll comply without hesitation.
If You Want to Help But Don’t Want Full Content Used
We understand if you’d rather not have full-resolution images or complete audio files used on the site. If so, here are some alternatives:
🔉Sound:
Provide only samples, shorter clips, lower-quality versions, or whatever you’re comfortable with.
🖼️Images:
Send a lower-resolution version, watermark it, reduce quality, convert to black and white, add white overlays, or crop it—any form is welcome.
We’re happy to accept and credit whatever version you prefer.
“I found content on the YouTube that are a property of me used without permissions and should be removed”
All material uploaded to the channel is for entertainment purposes only. All rights and credits go to the owners of the audio recordings, with no intention of copyright infringement.
The channel does not monetize or add the ads on the videos. This is done through YouTube and the license holders, all proceeds goes to the rightful owners.
I do not intend to cause harm to the bands or their music. If any artist or label feels uncomfortable having their work published on the channel, please contact me by email and I will remove the respective content.
But remember also this
Clarifying the Double Standards: You should also consider removing unofficial content from platforms like YouTube, Discogs, Metal Archives, Setlist.fm, and so on—because technically, those are also forms of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
So why is it that when Cirith Ungol Online includes certain items, it’s labeled as “stealing,” but when the exact same content appears on major websites or personal fan accounts, it’s not considered stealing? I don’t monetize anything on YouTube, and I’m genuinely curious—what makes the difference?
All of these accounts are either run by fans or claim to be “fans.” Much of the content they post—videos or music—is taken from other YouTube uploads, official streams, CDs, DVDs, or even filmed live on mobile phones. Then they reupload it, sometimes without any credit.
I’m just trying to understand: where is the line drawn?
Community Ethics
This website is fan-run and completely non-commercial. It’s created by a fan, for other fans—just like many YouTube channels or fan pages elsewhere. We don’t claim ownership of unofficial clips or material. We do our best to respect creators and credit everyone involved.
That said, if you’d prefer to submit lower-quality versions of your material, or want something removed, we fully respect that.
Supporting the Site
Building and maintaining this site has taken hundreds of hours—and quite a few sleepless nights. If you’d like to support it, there are several easy ways:
- Affiliate links at the bottom of most pages: when you buy through these, the site may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you.
- Donations via Wise are also appreciated.
- Hostinger
Or just share the site, correct typos, and contribute content.
Every little bit helps—and motivates us to keep improving the archive.
Contact & Credits
Email is preferred over social media. If you’d like to reach out, send a message with “CIRITH UNGOL” in the subject line to: info [@] cirithungol [dot] org
A heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed—through info, corrections, photos, or ongoing support. A special nod to photographers, journalists, and the musicians themselves.
📧 Email: info [@] cirithungol [dot] org
Or use the guestbook or forums.
We currently use Hostinger for both domain and hosting services.
Thanks to
- everyone who has supported this site, contributed and supplied with additional info, pics corrections and taken the effort of replying to my mails.
- all visitors and Cirith Ungol fans
- any photographer and journalist who has published interviews, articles, pictures, etc
- the musicians and everyone who helped in some way or other