We have today another case of bands missing an accredited member, and in this case, seems to be the drummer. The band is RINGLORN and it was formed in Greece in 2022. Another COVID child it seems. They released an EP in 2024 causing a buzz on the local scene with an “epic” kind of Metal based on tales of mysticism and battles. They have released in 2025 an 8 track album called Tales Of War And Magic via Steel Gallery Records. The first track is “Death with Honor” that pretty much sums it all what the band is about. A piano melody being played in a torrential rain in the background starts the track before the heavy guitar riffs introduce themselves.

The sound is like a Power Metal with the traditional precision and speed calling the listener to war. The songs themes goes from one battle to the other in “Royal Guard” that despite the slowest tempo, it is also a song to get ready to battle as you are part of this prestigious guard. I am liking the double guitar work with some classical passages ala MALMSTEEN that adds an extra flavour to the tracks. However, this is a trio with no drummer and only 1 guitar player in Takis Jnm that, despite being very good, will need another guitar player on live shows to help him play the good work he did on this album. Also the band needs to arrange a drummer and keyboard players in order to reproduce tracks like “Warlord”, or “Beautiful Witch” in all their glory.

All songs start with the traditional eerie mood with usually a keyboard arrangement , however if you do this for the entire song and add a dark voice telling a dark tale, you get  the track “Ars Moriendi”. A “non musical” track that attempts to bring the listener even deeper to the mysterious and sometimes medieval atmosphere of the album. We go back to battle with “Hallowed Swords” that reminds me a little of WARLORD that also a band that delves around the same themes. The bass of Gabriel Kouliakis is good, but it could be so much more if he did not follow the guitar riffs all the time. So many arrangements that could use some cool bass lines shining away from the riff. But this is just the revolted bass player in me and I would not take his credit for doing a good job on this album. Especially on the track that names the band “Ringlorn” where you can hear a Steve Harris kind of approach and the bass a little highlighted on the mix.

All the ingredients are there and the songs are good, however, I believe the weakest link may be the singer Mark J. Dexter. He definitely sings in tune and is even able to provide some good backing vocals, but his voice is too “normal” for this kind of genre that usually have "mastodonic "singers like Eric Adams, Kai Hansen and Andre Matos just to name a few. I know how hard it may be to reach that roughness and those high notes as this requires a lot of training, but the singing in this album sounds too bland for the musicianship, epicness and arrangements displayed on tracks like the one that closes the album ”Black Veil of Death” that should be sung with the backing vocals melody only as it is in the correct register to cause the necessary impact. Good first release that could be better with a more impactful vocal.