Rag I Ryggen Rag I Ryggen

From the country that brought you the security belt, here comes a hell of a loud record that will help you forget how hard you are stepping on the gas pedal.
Widely regarded as a milestone in Swedish hard-rock history, Råg I Ryggen is the homonymous debut album released by six youngsters from Stockholm back in 1975. It was recorded in just two sessions in February that year at the EMI studio in Skärmarbrink, one of the most modern 16-channel studios available in Sweden in that period. The sessions clocked around 16 hours in total, with barely any time left for overdubs. Clearly influenced by bands like Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and even Yes or Jethro Tull, the sounds contained here will appeal to hard-rock, heavy psych and progressive fans alike. It has it all: heavy crunchy riffs, loads and loads of over the top double lead guitar parts, wah-wah and fuzz-wah guitar effects, wild Hammond passages, analog synth parts, tasteful flute arrangements... you name it!
Although the band members were only between 15 and 20 years old at the time, it is worth mentioning that by then they had managed to amass a more than respectable array of instruments that would have made envious many a professional band of their era: Gibson guitars, Rickenbacker bass, a Hammond A100 with matching 150 watts Leslie speakers, a Rogers drum kit and a range of analog synths that included a MiniMoog, among other gear.
Somewhere between eight and ten thousand copies of the album were pressed and EMI took up the distribution in Sweden, although not abroad. In spite of the little commercial success obtained by the album after its release, Rondo - the label - still believed in the potential of the band and agreed to let them record further material for a second album. Unfortunately, growing musical differences and the obligations of adult life took a toll on the band and both the drummer and the lead singer soon left the project. They were replaced by other musicians and the band kept on playing live for some time but after a few months the group finally dismantled. A live recording with poor sound quality remains the sole document left from this last line-up and so one is only left to wonder what a second album might have sounded like after such a promising first delivery. Speculations aside, Råg I Ryggen nowadays stands as one of the most celebrated albums of the Scandinavian 70's.