Råg I Ryggen (Sweden) - Råg I Ryggen, 1975 [2006, Transubstans]

progarchives.com

Swedish act RÅG I RYGGEN was founded in 1971, based in the captitol city of Stockholm. According to the sparse sources available on the band they never managed to get a consistant line-up, as members were coming and going quite a lot.

Legend has it that a night of boozing lead to the band being signed. Peter Sandberg (drums) had apparently been out enjoying Stockholm's nightlife, and while waiting for public transport to arrive at Stockholm's Central Station he met and started discussing music with a guy who was there. Both of them were in a rather jolly mood according to the sources; and as the guy in question was a record producer the drunken discussion ended with Sandberg's band being invited to record an album at the studio the guy was working at.

The end result of this was that Sandberg and his fellow musicians Björn Aggemyr (bass), Björn Nyström (guitar), Christer Sjöborg (organ, keyboards), Jan Aggemyr (guitar), and Jonas Warnerbring (vocals, flute) got to record their one and only album; the self-titles production "Råg i ryggen" which was released in 1975.

In 1976 Warnerbring and Sandberg left the band; replaced by Bo Lantz (vocals) and Jonas Edgren (drums). This new line-up didn't last long though, and after a concert late in 1976 the band fell apart.

WHY IS THIS BAND LISTED AT PROGARCHIVES:
Swedish band RÅG I RYGGEN explored a brand of music highly influenced by acts like URIAH HEEP and DEEP PURPLE; yet also incorporating musical elements by more sophisticated outfits like JETHRO TULL at times.

Review by Andrupchik, rateyourmusic.com

Damn. This album was very surprising. I was absolutely hooked by the first song, on my first listen. I very rarely like albums this far into the 70's. By this time, virtually all heavy bands are losing their blues-based, psychedelic, proto-metallic sound, and exchanging it for a more ugly punk-based, modern-metallic sound. Black Sabbath fell victim to it by their fourth album, Deep Purple by 1974, UFO after their first two albums, Scorpions after the first album, etc., etc.. By the mid-70's, every heavy band sounds like the precursor to 80's metal. (Yuck.) So I was very skeptical about listening to this album. But to my amazement, the style is very securely anchored to the early 70's.

This is the best thing to come out of Sweden since November (the band, not the month). The first song starts out VERY strong, with very heavy riffs, catchy melodies, brain-frying fuzz (which is a very good thing), and plenty of wah. Just when I think the song is over, here comes a guitar-solo that that is so damn good that I get chills up my spine, with a beautiful fuzz-tone that makes me angry that it's used so rarely. The type of tone that's screechy as all hell and has all that extra fuzz buzzing all over the place like somebody's getting electrocuted, and mixed loudly enough for you to hear every detail perfectly! And they even get instant respect for singing at least a couple of songs in Swedish, unlike countless other bands that seem ashamed of using their own language, namely German bands.

The entire album is brilliant. Not a bad song to be found. Maybe 'Jan banan' if you don't like the organ, but even that song kicks ass if you just pay attention to the fuzz blasting out of the left speaker for the entire duration of the song. Anyone who's put off by this album because of its release year will absolutely love it if you just pretend that it's from 1972. I can honestly say that it's the best album of the entire year of 1975.