Review: –

After an EP, a full-length release and a split 7” single with the mighty Terminus, the pack of epic metal warriors from Portugal return with their best effort yet. ‘The Cycle Never Ends’ is what you need before the battle in order to destroy your enemies and drink blood from their skulls. More brutal than Ironsword, faithful to the legacy of early-Manowar, Omen and Manilla Road, Ravensire deliver crushing metal for the hell of it. In terms of musicianship, these guys show a huge improvement from their previous album ‘We March Forward’. That helps the song-writing flow and there is more depth in the compositions. From the galloping riffs of ‘Cromlech Revelations’ to the anthemic ‘Crosshaven’, from the skull-crushing ‘Solitary Vagrant’ and the great guitar leads of ‘Trapped In Dreams’, to the closing ‘White Pillars Trilogy’, everything is barbaric. Eight tracks in the spirit of the old legends, without filler, all created in the pure essence of what epic metal is all about, beyond modern mediocrity. Some might call it regressive but as a fellow metal legend would add, “metal up thy arse”.