Return of the Dead Kings

• Bootleg live album
• CD-R: 2009 (Battle Axe Productions)
• Track 1-6: Live at Roxy Club 1983
• Track 9-11+13: Live at Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California, 1985
• Track 12: Live at The Country Club, Reseda, California, 1984
• Track 12 is incorrectly listed as being live from Santa Barbara.
• There are only six tracks on this CD, tracks 1-8 are merged to track 1.

Was sold from whisperer in the darkness at eBay. Description: “Great item containing some rare live recordings with Cirith Ungol, one gig from Roxy Club 1983 and one from Santa Barbara. The Sound Quality is quite decent and enjoyable. Nicely done boklett with interviews and some nice CU pictures. Should be interesting for any Cirith Ungol fan.”

The cover artwork of Elric is great of course, the booklet is quite good too for being a bootleg. It has words by Rob and Greg, and a lot of pics inside.

The real attraction here is the first part, Live at Roxy Club 1983, where most of the King of the Dead album is played. Three of the songs has never officially been released live before, that is Black Machine, Death of the Sun and Finger of Scorn. The sound quality is unfortunately not great. The highlight for me here is Finger of Scorn, which is presented in a quite different version from the album version. The acoustic intro and interlude is different, and Tim doesn’t “scream” as much, but sings in a much softer style, which serves this semi-ballad well.

The songs of the second part, Live In Santa Barbara 1985 and Live at The Country Club 1984, have already officially been released on Servants of Chaos in 2001. They were recorded 1984/85. The sound quality here is very good. (from 2009)

Also see here from 2019:

I’m Alive

And here from book and drawing (1976)

Michael Moorcock – Elric 1. Elric of Melniboné

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Marcus

Guest

14 years ago

I couldnt have said it better dani! I totally agree that bootleggs are a integrated part of particularly the Underground metal scene, where Demos, rehearshals, Hard to get live recordings etc are only available to fans or collectors through bootleggs (or in some rare cases via download) Bootlegging has been going on since more or less “the birth of rock” some 30-40 years ago and really came alive in the 70´s with the whole record collecting thing, which later wore of on the metal community and those collectors. Totally agree with dani on this. Just my opinion aswell…

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Dani

Admin

14 years ago

Thanks for the tip, Marcus.

I know that many people with good reasons are against bootlegs and I fully respect their views. Personally I have been buying bootlegs the last 15 years or so, mostly bootlegs with rare tracks. Bootlegs are often the only way to get the stuff – at least 15 years ago. CU them self doesn’t seem to have very much against bootlegs either. See Rob’s words in the Diabolical Conquest interview, + Tim shared a link where one could download a CU bootleg.
There are different types of bootlegs.

Counterfeits are good replacements when the original record is impossible to find without being Sherlock Holmes and Bill Gates at the same time. I prefer having a bootleg of the CD/LP than not having it at all, or just on mp3.

Bootlegs with unreleased live recordings or songs are very interesting for me if I already have all what has been officially released. I may be wrong, but I don’t know if it’s true that if the band would like to release their live recordings officially, they would just do it. CU has wanted to release a live album since 1986. (see the Suck City interview). It much depends on the record companies. I also don’t think that a crappy bootleg would stop the fans from buying an awesome official live album with superb quality.

Just my opinion…

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Ioannis Katis

Guest

14 years ago

Please guys do NOT support bootlegers,those are lost money gone to some wise guy that released this!
I have this live recordings in my possession for many years but never thought to make a cover with Elric and release a bootleg cd!
If the band wanted it, they would have done so and make a profit out of it!
Having these songs in your p.c is one thing and release them as a bootleg cd is another.
Please stop buing bottlegs!
With all do respect
Ioannis

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Marcus

Guest

14 years ago

I got it aswell, great stuff indeed! Just saw that the seller put this one up recently, might be worth checking out. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320571140198&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_1131wt_1137

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Dani

Admin

15 years ago

I finally got hold of this bootleg. It’s being sold on eBay once in a while, so it should be available to anyone who wants it. It will probably be a little overpriced though. Anything between $25-65 could be expected. There’s no need to pay more than that, as it most probably will be listed again soon enough! The CD consists of two parts; Live at Roxy Club 1983 (track 1-7) and Live in Santa Barbara (track 8-12). The cover artwork of Elric is great of course, the booklet is quite good too. It has words by Rob and Greg, and a lot of pics inside.

The real attraction here is the first part, Live at Roxy Club 1983, where most of the King of the Dead album is played. Three of the songs has never officially been released live before, that is Black Machine, Death of the Sun and Finger of Scorn. The soundquality is unfortunately not great. The highlight for me here is Finger of Scorn, which is presented in a quite different version from the album version. The accoustic intro and interlude is different, and Tim doesn’t “scream” as much, but sings in a much softer style, which serves this semi-ballad well.

The songs of the second part, Live In Santa Barbara, have already officially been released on Servants of Chaos in 2001. They were recorded 1984/85. The sound quality here is very good.

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