The Owl Service - His Pride. No Spear. No Friend. (2016)

Free from the constraints of running a label, in January 2015 Collins confirmed that there would be an all-new Owl Service album released before the end of the year entitled His Pride. No Spear. No Friend. The third album was eventually released on 31 October 2015 and was something of a departure from previous Owl Service releases. According to Collins; "The album is mostly traditional songs, but the sound is far from traditional. It's a folk album in lyrical content only, not in sound". Ultimately, Collins' fierce anti-industry/pro-DIY stance would prove to be his downfall as the band flew below the radar of most people and the final album was both a critical and commercial failure, being met either with total indifference or worse; completely ignored. Collins himself likened the task of promoting His Pride. No Spear. No Friend. to "flogging a dead horse whilst banging my head against a brick wall".

His exasperation was compounded by the fact that he believed the album was his finest work to date, and the pinnacle of what he'd set out to achieve with The Owl Service 10 years earlier. Also, the final record was almost entirely a one-man project, with Collins arranging, recording, mixing and mastering the audio, performing everything except the vocals, and also creating the artwork and co-ordinating the manufacture. To see the album fail proved to be the final straw and soon after the release of the album Steven Collins announced that The Owl Service would cease to exist on the band's 10th anniversary on 6 June 2016. Collins subsequently retired from making music.

Track List:
01. The Widow's Lament (04:00)
02. The False Knight (03:08)
03. The Skater (03:45)
04. Geordie (03:26)
05. Sea Song (04:44)
06. Salisbury Plain (02:31)
07. Living by the Water (04:43)
08. Hugh of Lincoln (04:11)
09. Willie's Lady (06:53)