Ritual their first album, WOW...

[Rick]

More top class Nordic prog, i always thought they were a prog metal band.

Go over to their myspace at
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... =103882442

Ignore the other tracks and listen to Big Black Secret......Brilliant!

[kyuwert]

I really like Ritual... I only have the later 2 albums I believe, can't think of their names at the moment. I can't find the first two anywhere.

[kaide]

Never heard of them before, but i liked what i heard.
Gotta check out some more

[ChrisX]

I really like Ritual... I only have the later 2 albums I believe, can't think of their names at the moment. I can't find the first two anywhere.

The two Ritual albums that really do matter IMHO are their debut (excellent folky-meet-Yes-prog) and the last one, The Hemulic Voluntary Band which is finally an album that is a great successor to that superb debut. The last one is even more folky at times but they have traded the Yes influences for a more knotty Gentle Giant sound.

[catherine]

I was lucky enough to see them in London in May - a relatively short set; they were touring with Beardfish and the Tangent. I was really impressed with them live - they played quite a lot from the Helmulic Voluntary Band (which I bought at the gig).

Interesting instruments - various pipe-y things at times, and a Nykkelharpa (?sp?). And Patrik (lead singer) had some rather wacky trousers. Must get some of their other albums. Aren't they touring again in the UK soon?

[Philadelphia]

Nyckelharpa, but I think it's OK to call it a "key harp" in English. It gets you to the right page on Wikipedia, if nothing else. (;-)
It's a pretty cool instrument, though!