Ritual

Ritual is a progressive rock band from Stockholm, formed in 1993. Influenced equally by progressive rock and hardrock of the 70s and contemporary bands like The Police, XTC and It Bites, Ritual forged their own distinctive brand of progressive music.

The characteristics of the band’s sound were already prominent on their eponymous debut album, released in 1996: song based, melodic and intense, with a great stylistic variation, and plenty of folk music influences seeping in. The latter feature is not least due to the band’s frequent use of acoustic instruments like bouzouki, mandola, whistles and the Swedish nyckelharpa (a keyed fiddle). Songs like Seasong For The Moominpappa also showed something that would become a hallmark of the band: lyrics inspired by Tove Jansson’s novels about the Moomins. This culminated in the album The Hemulic Voluntary Band from 2008, where five out of six songs drew inspiration from Tove Jansson, including the 26-minute long A Dangerous Journey.

Over the years, Ritual has established themselves as a confident and powerful live band through numerous tours around Europe and appearances at international festivals such as Rites Of Spring Fest in the USA and Baja Prog in Mexico.