Portuguese heavy metal battalion, Ravensire, has entered Studio 13 in Lisbon to begin work on their third full-length album, A Stone Engraved In Red. The album will be engineered once again by Paulo 'Paulão' Vieira and is due next summer via Cruz Del Sur Music.

The follow-up to 2016's The Cycle Never Ends will be the first to feature new members Mário (guitar) and Alex (drums), both of whom took part in live activity that saw Ravensire take their brand of traditional metal into Europe.

According to founding guitarist Nuno, A Stone Engraved In Red will feature all the trademarks of Ravensire's sound, but with some new twists. "We have started exploring a bit more when it comes to developing musical themes inside a song," he says. "We have a couple of longer - even by our standards - songs, with plenty of changes in moods and tempo. The material is quite diverse and, personally, it is always a good sign when you listen to your own stuff and enjoy it!"

"The songwriting remained the same for us," he continues. "Someone will come up with a skeleton for a song more or less finished, and then we work it up as a whole band and everyone adds their part. There is one song, however, that was co-written by me and Mário. He did come up with an initial idea and then I added other parts and we created a structure. But, that was the exception to the norm!"

Nuno confirms song titles such as "Carnage At Karnag", "Gabriel Lies Sleeping" and "The Games Of Titus" and their own tribute to recently-deceased Manilla Road leader Mark Shelton, "After The Battle".

"Mark gave so much to the scene, so we felt it was right to dedicate this song to him. In addition, we have another tribute called 'Dawning In Darkness,' which is dedicated to Hartmuth 'Barbarian Wrath' Schindlerwho had a terrible misfortune in the hospital and has been in a coma for more than a year. We want to pay our deepest respect and friendship to both of them."

Like previous Ravensire efforts, the album artwork for A Stone Engraved In Red will be in black and white, although Nuno admits there may be a surprise within the cover. As such, Nuno says the title of the album has a deeper meaning for the band: "It's a statement that no matter what we do, we want it to be rock solid and stand the test of time, just like the epitaphs of old."