Rite Here, Rite Now

After a 17-year break, Swedish four-piece Ritual have made a very welcome return with the first part of The Story Of Mr. Bogd. Guitarist/vocalist Patrik Lundström discusses embracing their inner child, the magic of Moomins and the musical journey that led to the creation of the two-part concept album.

- Dom Lawson

One of Sweden's most distinctive modern prog bands, Ritual formed in 1992 and were firmly ahead of the game from the start.

Inspired by the prog legends of the 60s and 70s and more modern exponents of the art, such as It Bites and XTC, they steadily evolved into a melodic and endlessly inventive powerhouse, with a curious obsession with Finnish legend Tove Jansson's Moomin stories and a fervently diverse musical palette. Their first four albums are all magnificent, and the last of them - 2007's The Hemulic Voluntary Band - was widely hailed as a triumph, at least in prog circles. But since then, Ritual have been conspicuous by their absence. They never stopped making music, but hadn't released a new album in 17 years, despite continual rumours that fresh music was on the way.

They finally completed work on the first part of a planned double concept album, The Story Of Mr. Bogd, and relaunched themselves, albeit several years later than planned, last August.

"There have been so many things that have stretched out time for us," gregarious singer/ guitarist Patrik Lundström tells Prog. "It's been a long haul. But you know, we're meticulous....with everything! But it's been a mixture of things. First of all, this has been a major task to complete and we wanted to do it properly.

We've always taken time between our albums.

We're not one of those bands that produce an album every year or every second year. Between the first and second albums it was, what, five years? Of course, this time has been a lot longer! But now we have the chance to renew ourselves and to have a comeback, even though we didn't split up. I guess life is what happens when you're busy making concept albums!" The roots of The Story Of Mr. Bogd can be found in the final track on Ritual's last album.