The Ring

"Tales from Midgard"

The Ring is a Swedish project assembled to intrepid the seminal work of Tolkien “The Lord of The Rings” As Tolkien wrote 3 books to complete the trilogy, so has The Ring planned to record and publish 3 albums. “Tales from Midgard” is the first one, and what an album that is. The album is very much influenced by mid-80´ties epic metal, with such bands like Dio, Rainbow, Manowar and Black Sabbath.

When listening to “Tales………..” Ronnie James Dio rocking through such classics like “Holy Diver” and “Rainbow in the Dark” doesn’t seem so far away. And the vibes from the Black Sabbath album “Tyr” are also very clear and strong.

The Ring line-up is as follows: Jake Samuel (vocals/drums), Pontus Norgren (guitar) and Marcus Jidell on bass. Surprisingly I have no recollection about hearing those names before! Taking their high level of musicianship in consideration, they should be worldwide big-time rock stars by now. If not, it’s only a matter of time, because they are truly skilled, and very convincing in how they perform.

On several occasions Pontus prove himself worthy of handling the 6-stringer. One song I’d like to emphasize in this connection is song #5 which is named “Unite or Fall”. It starts out with a doomish mid-tempo pace and a very Dio-like vocal – “Holy Diver” is the first song that comes to my mind. The guitar work on that song in particular, is so much better than anything else I’ve heard for a long time. Pontus plays incredibly flawless and sharp, and he is for sure an important asset to The Ring.

Besides the band members mentioned earlier, there’s also a guest vocalist appearing on the album. It’s Doogie White who sings on “Voices of The Fallen Kings”. He should need no further introduction, but for those who haven’t heard about him before, he’s doing the vocals in Cornerstone, and has been on stage with such acclaimed names like Blackmores Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen and Gary Hughes.

Further info on this fine release, is to be found at: www.scarletrcords.it