Ritual - Think Like A Mountain


Year of Release: 2003
Label: InsideOut
Catalog Number: SPVCD 65602
Format: CD
Total Time: 54:20:00

This review is excerpted from Clayton's July 22, 2003 The Prog Life column found here -ed.

If the folks in Ritual don't admit to a heavy Led Zeppelin, Queen, and King Crimson influence, I'll eat my CD player. In fact, I'll eat it, cough it up, and eat it a second time. [Eew! ? taste ed.] Other less obvious, but equally valid influences, include Faith No More and The Beatles. The songs here range from fairly straightforward rock to sophisticated almost RIO fare, all of it drenched with great songwriting and clever arrangements. In many cases, Queen oozes from the tracks, especially "Moomin Took My Head" (at least before it goes off on its cool King Crimish-ish side path).

The track "Infinite Justice" sounds like "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" with vocals, where as "Mother You?ve Been Gone For Much Too Long" closes with a passage that brings forth an image of King Crimson playing the end of The Beatles?s "I Want You (She?s So Heavy)." I kid you not. "Breathing" must have been written right after a listen to "Strawberry Fields Forever" with Freddie Mercury on lead vocals. In spite of obvious influences (sometimes passages are so close to the original, you can hear lawyers reaching for their phones), Ritual manages to turn in an album unlike anything I've heard before. Yep, their unusual stew tastes just fine.


Tracklisting:
What Are You Waiting For (3:58) / Humble Decision (4:01) / Explosive Paste (5:02) / Once The Tree Would Bloom (3:57) / Mother You've Been Gone For Much Too Long (7:03) / Think Like A Mountain (5:01) / Moomin Took My Head (4:32) / Infinite Justice (6:35) / On (2:58) / Shamanarama 4:34) / Breathing (4:17) / Off (2:16)

Musicians:
Patrik Lundstr?m - lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars
Fredrik Lindqvist - bass, bouzouki, recorder, whistles, hammered dulcimer
Johan Nordgren - percussion, drums, mallets, nyckelharpa
Jon Gamble - organ, synths, piano, mellotron

Guest:

Lovisa Hallstedt - violins, viola

Discography:
Ritual (1995/2004)
Ritual (1996) (Japanese version)
Did I Go Wrong (EP) (1999)
Superb Birth (1999/2000/2004)
Think Like A Mountain (2003)
Live (2006)
The Hemulic Voluntary Band (2007)
Glimpses From The Story Of Mr. Bogd (2020)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin SE

Added: July 22nd 2003
Reviewer: Clayton Walnum
Score:
Artist website: www.ritual.se
Hits: 2859
Language: english

  

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