Midsommar

*200 copies limited edition* After the sold-out reissues of San Michael’s and Gandalf’s albums, we plunge once more into Sweden’s labyrinthine musical vaults, to bring you Midsommar’s highly collectable debut, Belsebub är lös. Originally released in 1970, this is a psychedelic hard-rocker, occasionally amalgamating with proto-prog and folk. The self-titled opening track sets the stage for what is bound to follow. As we journey through the album’s stomping textures, we discover tunes such as Drömmens Värld that pleasantly unsettles the listener in a trance-like state with non-stop percussion lurking in the background, while bursting mid-track into a furious guitar solo, the homonymous Midsommar that blends ethnorock with psych folk, topped up with a mesmerizing flute solo, and Fantomen, the longest track, a hard rock juggernaut melting into a psychedelic jazz rollercoaster before unleashing guitar mayhem.

Altogether, an essential album for psych/prog/hard rock collectors who are lured by the hard-prog edge of early Trettioariga Kriget, the heavy prog musings of November, early San Michael’s, with a slice of Arbete Och Fritid. This first ever reissue comes in 400 numbered copies (200 in black and 200 in splatter vinyl), including a 2-page insert with the band’s extensive bio that has been lacking so far from the relevant archival info.