{"id":104494,"date":"2025-01-24T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104494"},"modified":"2025-02-07T11:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T11:22:27","slug":"album-review-ringlorn-tales-of-war-and-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-ringlorn-tales-of-war-and-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"RINGLORN – Tales Of War And Magic (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

RINGLORN
Tales Of War And Magic<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSteel Gallery (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 5.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s one of those albums that bristles with nostalgia for me, simply because of its warm fantasy nature. There are yarns spun within this arena that take me back to my teenage years, more specifically the 80s when listening to heavy metal music meant adorning my school text books in sketches of band logos, swords dripping blood, bizarre mythical creatures and Lord Of The Rings<\/em> inspired verse.<\/p>\n

Okay, so an allegedly mature adult decades later the novelty of fighting fantasy metal has certainly worn off, but every now and then I get a twinge of excitement when a band emerges with an obvious taste for, as the title states, \u201ctales of war and magic\u201d.<\/p>\n

This debut full-length album from Crete, Geece-based Ringlorn follows on from last year\u2019s EP Chapter 1<\/em>, although all four tracks which featured (\u2018Death With Honor\u2019, \u2018Ringlorn\u2019, \u2018Beautiful Witch\u2019, \u2018Warlord\u2019) are present here alongside another four cuts: \u2018Royal Guard\u2019, \u2018Ars Moriendi\u2019, \u2018Hallowed Swords\u2019 and \u2018Black Veil Of Death\u2019.<\/p>\n

The trio behind such an assault is vocalist Mark J. Dexter (Dexter Ward), bassist Gabriel Kouliakis and guitarist Takis Jnm, and together they\u2019ve pieced together a vibrant and often anthemic heap of steel which Greece has become known for over the last few years. Tales Of War And Magic<\/em> kicks off with the sound of a brewing storm before \u2018Death With Honor\u2019 gallops with a rather generic yet pleasant rhythm, the trio not quite as grandiose as I thought.<\/p>\n

To an extent, the rest of the album follows suit, fluid but without any real power which is quite disappointing in the grand scheme of things. Dexter\u2019s voice runs like a relatively deep bellow accompanied by smooth yet beguiling axe work and a general sense of the Gothic. The pace is brisk but is lowered for the mid-paced \u2018Royal Guard\u2019. Again there\u2019s a rather safe stability to proceedings, although even with the mystical lyrics I\u2019m underwhelmed by a sound that hints at the Teutonic alongside Manilla Road but without the intensity.<\/p>\n

I guess at their most brooding Ringlorn serve up \u2018Beautiful Witch\u2019, which is less formulaic in its steely rumble, but it still resorts to that archetypal chest-pumping cheesiness. Even so, there is<\/em> variety here. \u2018Hallowed Swords\u2019 is delightfully upbeat in its journey but again it does reach that level of cringe, as does \u2018Ringlorn\u2019, although it\u2019s here that the band scrapes the barrel of generic power metal. Of course, the flickers of nostalgia do emerge, more so in the lyrics, but it\u2019s far less commanding and convincing than I would\u2019ve liked as I find myself reaching instead for my Warlord or even Riders Of Rohan albums instead.<\/p>\n

There are still plenty of moody introductory pieces and theatre (\u2018Ars Moriendi\u2019), but musically the whole drama is lukewarm, epitomised by the closing \u2018Black Veil Of Death\u2019 where again the introduction is dark in contrast to the standard fare of the music. So, this isn\u2019t up there with a lot of the Greek bands doing the rounds, but there is still a warmth which draws you in.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RINGLORNTales Of War And Magic Steel Gallery (2025)Rating: 5.5\/10 Here\u2019s one of those albums that bristles with nostalgia for me, simply because of its warm fantasy nature. There are yarns spun within this arena that take me back to my teenage years, more specifically the 80s when listening to heavy metal music meant adorning my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-ringlorn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104495,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104494\/revisions\/104495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}