THE HEMULIC VOLUNTARY BAND

What an album from Ritual, what an effort to deliver top quality music, lyrics AND artwork!! From the first notes, I thought:'Yummy, this is refreshing'. In fact, this album is a huge gingerbread cookie in a Gentle Giant shape!

Any fan of Gentle Giant will drool on this album from start to finish because as frosting, the whole package is based on some sort of fantasy voyage of the Moomins, invented by Tove Jansson. Beautifully drawed, the front page is just the beginning; I thought I was in some teenage fantasy litterature (like the Hobbit was).

The songs are fresh and absent of all the prog-metal clichés; only folk-rock a la Tull and complex structures and breaks a la Gentle Giant. Honestly, with Wobbler's Hinterland and Phideaux's Doomsday Afternoon, THIS is the top of the line for the old school progressive lovers. You cannot simply go wrong with this album, buy it eyes closed.

Ritual has officialy stepped into the court of the big guns and have my vote for album of the year, period.

As Robin would quote:'Holy logjams Batman, we've found it!'

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