Ritual

Ritual
Inkognito, Chateau Neuf, Oslo (Lille sal)
Date: Friday, May 7th, 1999
Audience: A handful

by Sven Eriksen
Photos: Sven Eriksen

The Swedish band Ritual, which back in 1995 did what was perhaps the best live concert in this venue's history, and whose debut album is one the most spectacular releases of the 90's, was back!

Ritual consists of Patrik Lundstrom, guitar and vocals, an extremely tasteful guitarist, and with a voice that places him in the uppermost division. Further, there is Fredrik Lindqvist (bass etc.), powerful and tasteful bassist with a good ear for finding the right notes to play, Jon Gamble (keyboards), an exquisite team-player, and Johan Nordgren, rock-solid drummer.

The line-up is unchanged since 1995, that can not be said about the music. For some reason, they chose to play almost entirely stuff from their forthcoming (September) CD. We were far into the concert when they played the first well-known notes - Typhoons Decide. Before this, we had been served a bunch of relatively anonymous heavy rock tunes.

The band says that it is a deliberate choice to make the music simpler. Yet, they did not appear to enjoy the new material that much, it all seemed stiff, sterile and posing. Not like in '95 when they were a humourus, playful band. Even when they changed to two acoustic guitars, the sound did not change much. It was not until the encore, Seasong For the Moominpappa, that they actually seemed to enjoy themselves.

About halfway into the concert they introduced the band's new single, which actually had a "pre-release" this evening. Did I Go Wrong had a touch of what the band once was, but they were soon back in the rut.

Soundwise, Ritual is as impressive as ever, that will say, until the band's own sound engineer took over the faders and managed to ruin the last part of the concert. One could see the vocalist move his lips, but alas, one could not hear him sing. Why can't these people learn to confine themselves?

Ritual is still a good progressive band, (their amount of energy is amazing), but only just. They may gain some new fans by their change of direction, but they are sure to lose a lot.

Do I sound grumpy and frustrated? It IS painful to watch one of the 90's freshest groups on its way to being reduced to a second-rate heavy rock band.