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Ritual
Superb Birth
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Somewhere between Porcupine Tree’s lush, hard rock smarts and The Tea Party’s penchant for the exotic, Ritual makes 1999’s “Superb Birth”, their second disc now released in the US (due to the release of their recent, third offering “Think Like A Mountain”), one of my favorite new discoveries. The disc opens with the no-nonsense manifesto Do You Want To See The Sun, a song that sounds good at moderate volume but sounds even better loud, with a sub-woofer knocking out that bottom end. If that doesn’t put you in the right frame of mind, the following Lobby ought to, especially with its classic rock head-bob for a chorus.
Lead vocalist Patrik Lundstrom has a great voice and can work it in all sorts of directions, from the single-friendly Coming Home to the old-school hard rock wails in Mothersong. All of this proves something I’ve been saying for awhile now. It is possible to make a rock album that satisfyingly stomps, grooves and doesn’t fall into the stupid traps a lot of the dinosaurs end up mired in. Is it a cultural difference? No, that’s too simple and easy an answer. I think a better one is that Ritual has worked hard to make “Superb Birth” powerful, where some of their own idols are too comfortable plugging into cliche.
Oh, enough of this. Just get “Superb Birth” and hear for yourself.
Release Date: July 20, 2004
Tracks: 12 - Time: 53:01
Produced by: Ritual & Hans Fredriksson
Format: CD
Website: www.ritual.se
Track Listing:
Do You Want To See The Sun / Lobby / Sadly Unspoken / Did I Go Wrong / 6/8 / Coming Home / Into The Heat / Really Something / Mothersong / Golden Angel / Dinosaur Spaceship / A Voice Of Divinity (live).
Ritual:
Patrik Lundstrum - Vocals / Guitar
Fredrik Lindqvist - Bass
Jon Gamble - Keyboards
Johan Nordgren - Drums
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