RITUAL – The Hemulic Voluntary Band (2025 Remaster)

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://ritualsweden.bandcamp.com/merch/ritual-the-hemulic-voluntary-band-cd

A most playful, eclectic, and wildly entertaining release inspired by Tove Jansson’s immortal Moomin universe, this remastered issue of the fourth album by Swedish prog rockers Ritual, which originally came out in 2007, delivers a fabulously good time with just the right amount of subtle darkness and melancholy seeping in when needed.

While The Story of Mr. Bogd – Part 1 from last year marks the high point in the band’s career, this particular opus from 2007 is cleverly crafted and superbly performed, and it boasts countless muscular riffs, some wonderful vocal melodies, plenty of delightful surprises, and quirky lyrics that perfectly accompany the devious nature of the music itself. Influences from the prog rock giants who loomed large in the 70s are present everywhere on the disc, and some of the aggressive, galloping passages even recall iron Maiden around the time of Piece of Mind and Powerslave, but more than anything, The Hemulic Voluntary Band sounds like the work of a well-oiled musical ensemble that is firing on all cylinders and in firm control of their own destiny. The confidence that literally leaps from the speakers is out of this world and the LP is a highly accomplished and original work whose symphonic flourishes are just to die for.

This remastered offering deserves to be warmly received by fans both old and new as its sonic qualities surpass those of its original counterpart, and the warmth of the overall sound, the crunch of the guitars, and the more pronounced power of the rhythm section are a proper treat as is the record itself.