A tour de Norse

Kiwi prog-rock is rare, but the 1975 self-titled album by Auckland group Ragnarok is among the best.

- RAGNAROK

RAGNAROK, by Ragnarok Bo Nerbe, who has run his tiny record shop Got To Hurry since 1983 in Stockholm's Old Town, takes a step back in alarm when I mention the band Ragnarok.

The only Ragnarok he knows are the aggressive Norwegian black metallers of that name who are into Satanism, death cults, Norse mythology and extreme volume. Their new bassist is Hellcommander Vargblod.

Nerbe is relieved when I tell him about the excellent New Zealand prog-rock band Ragnarok who arrived in the mid-70s with their self-titled debut album steeped in Nordic myth and synthesisers, and fronted by the powerful vocals of Lea Maalfrid.

This is Nerbe's kind of music.

The catalogue of New Zealand prog-rock albums is meagre - it was an expensive idiom - and the shortlist of good ones even smaller.

Many would argue Ragnarok - who grew out of glam - were, briefly, the best.