THE FLOWER KINGS

I don't think it is possible for Roine Stolt to release a bad album, no matter what band he is involved with, and here we have the fifteenth studio effort from the group who took their name from his incredible 1994 solo album, which I loved when it came out. It thrust the name of the ex-Kaipa guitarist right into the heart of the underground, and in these days of the internet it is hard to explain just how big an impact it had on the scene when it was released, back when all anyone had were a few fanzines and word of mouth. Since then, there have been various musicians through the group, and to be honest as long as Roine is there in control of it all that is all that matters.

But, one of the major issues he has always had is a refusal to self-edit as much as he should, and it is not unusual to release albums which are overlong and should have been cut back in size. At 94 minutes this is not their longest release, but that is still pretty lengthy and demands two CDs, and here they have used the opportunity to spread their wings and sit strongly within symphonic prog yet also bring in influences from other areas as well. It is an album which takes quite a bit of listening to, as it takes quite a bit of time to really get inside, even though it feels highly commercial and the musicianship is stunning. I did smile when I saw Rob Townsend guesting on sac (and his addition is inspired), given the last time I saw him was in his normal day job with Steve Hackett, who on the last tour had Jonas Reingold on bass. The first time I played it all the way through I kept looking to see when it was ending and how much longer it had to go until it finished, but the next time I just let myself fall into the music, with the result being the realisation that this is another very good album indeed. Not up to the standard of 'Waiting For Miracles' perhaps, but still very enjoyable for all progheads.

Been a hot minute since I made a Flower Kings review, let's change that.

I think there are two types of Flower Kings albums, the grassy albums, and the aquatic albums. The grassy albums are more of the pastoral, almost prog folk albums that contain more of a flowery atmosphere, whilst the aquatic albums feel a lot more seaside oriented, with a lot of marimbas, blue images, and very tranquil sounds. The only exceptions for me in these two Flower Kings archetypes is Retropolis, Stardust We Are, and The Rainmaker, though sometimes they skirt on the edges of the two types. For The Sum Of No Evil, it is an aquatic Flower Kings record. What we find here is a really sweet undertaking from these wonderful prog guys. A lot of The Flower Kings material since here have been very long, clearly as a band who wishes to not leave anything on the cutting room floor, but here we may get quite the opposite of those undertakings with 6 songs, all taking their time in establishing this oceanic view of an album.

For starters, I think Love Is The Only Answer is a magnificent epic. How the song weaves through these boundless oceanic plates, some of which have sounds that feel very much in-tune with bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X (though with a Flower Kings coat of paint). If there is one thing this band does right every time, it is to make masterful prog rock epics, which isn't quite surprising due to Roine Stolt's track record within multiple bands he is, or was a part of.

The smaller tracks on here are also superb, such as Trading my Soul and The Sum Of No Reason. These tracks really do showcase the band's strength in song structure, creating these very vibrant tracks that meshes the innate joyfulness of the band's image with very classical prog rock sounds to create some very nicely made music that I have fallen in obsessed with.

I would say, though, that this feels less like an original Flower Kings record like Flower Power or Unfold The Future, and more like the band trying to recreate their older workings. Many tracks on here feel a bit too similar to ones on previous albums, and whilst I know this band never quite changes sonically from album to album, here it feels almost like they aren't quite being completely original for themselves. It is also quite apparent as this is their shortest album in terms of track listing, and also after this released, the band went on hiatus until their 2012 comeback of Banks Of Eden. I guess by this point the band ran low on steam and so had to take a bit to refuel.

A very great album from this lovely band, however the lack of originality is quite apparent, especially when you've been listening to a band of this caliber quite a lot. I definitely can recommend this record, but I think it shouldn't be the first record you check out from them, as it isn't quite a definitive album in the band's catalog in my mind.

This is the 15th album from veteran Progressive rock band The Flower Kings, and 3rd since their 2019 reformation with this current lineup. This is a double album, as each of their previous few have been as well, so it is quite expansive and contains a lot of music, 18 tracks of mostly shorter songs (thus, no long epics that they are somewhat known for) coming in at ~96 minutes of music. First, the album sounds great, and the musicianship and lush arrangements are superb throughout. The instrumental passages and sections within songs are the real highlight here, as they generally raise the level of the songs. Unfortunately, I have a bit of an issue with many of the songs themselves, particularly many of the verse and chorus sections, as they tend to be somewhat lackluster and just not very memorable. Overall, it's quite pleasant and enjoyable, but not much more than that. For me, most of the songs pass by without generating much enthusiasm, doesn't grab my attention, and just kind of fade into progressive background music. The album doesn't really take off until near the end of the first disc, with a great sequence of songs: 'We Can Make it Work' is a bright little pop ditty that is elevated by the unique instrumentation and wonderful arrangement (use of xylophone, various guitar fills, and vocals), followed by 'Peace on Parade', a great instrumental that shows what this band is capable of, too bad there are not more like this here, and then the disc closer 'Revolution', another album highlight. Disc 2 continues with hit and miss tracks, but includes several more highlights. So yes, overall, the album is quite good, and contains many great moments, but it is just not great overall. I do not think it measures up to their best work. There are several fine songs here, but also many just OK ones. Best tracks: 'Peacock on Parade', 'Revolution', 'Evolution', 'We Can Make It Work', 'The Big Funk', 'Funeral Pyre', 'A Million Stars'.

The most recent installment and technically their fifteenth studio album(!), By Royal Decree is their fourth (including 2018's Manifesto of an Alchemist, under the seemingly backhanded name Roine Stolt's The Flower King), following the still-mysterious departure of the once-seemingly-quintessential--I still want to give him compliments galore--Tomas Bodin. Through and through, regardless of personnel, The Flower Kings are still wondrously capable monarchs, and kindly for continuing to share this mutual love with us [I guess I've been in my feels recently haha].

Opening up the album, "The Great Pretender" is a triumph. As with much in the Flower Kings catalog, this has classic Prog moments and modernity alike. Solid melodies and a composition which is so convincingly confident and daring, it's successfully moving. Big shock coming from these veteran Swedes /s. Killer synth solo toward the end, from Bodin's replacement, Zach Kamins. "World Gone Crazy", with Flower Kings' branded drama in title and sonics, is dark and tense; a tad Fusion-y, a tad spacy. Delicious stuff; forever impressed specifically with drummer Mirkko DeMaio; yet another insane synth solo to wrap this one up as well. Plenty to love.

"Blinded" has a classic, Dark Roine-penned theme. Awesome layers and satisfying buildup and release of tension throughout. Gotta unclench that jaw some time haha. There is some incredible saxophone soloing here, performed by a man I incidentally saw last night, Rob Townsend of Steve Hackett's band (incredible show, if you ever are granted the chance; I was truly blessed). Indeed "Blinded" could well have been something in Hackett's catalog, a plenty high praise. Modern Prog simply doesn't get much better than this! And then, we get a bit sentimental on "A Million Stars", don't we? Sonically reminds me of Styx or America [that sounds confusing now that I'm reading it back]? As a whole, impressive, though I'm not wild about the song, if you're trackin'.

We come back to familiar big feelings Flower Kings on "The Soldier". Sweeping and beautiful (3.5/5.0, to be clear; less readied for your "prog rock music collection", but a fine song nonetheless). Unveiling more about ourselves than what I was ready to hear tonight /s, "The Darkness in You" is sweet in its melancholic intro. Before the second verse, it drops away, besides drums, and my mind went to Celine's ridiculously epic take on "All By Myself", yet there's nothing sweeping or epic to that degree here. Honestly, the first low-point on the record. "We Can Make It Work"? More like "We Can Make a Mid-00s Singer-Songwriter Hit Psychedelic Pop". Quirky Edwardian something-rather. I'm on the fence about it, but it is plenty well performed.

And finally we get a moment from the band that I am excited to proclaim, 'Now this is Flower Kings!': "Peacock on Parade". I still get excited about these things. I guess you could say it's working then [toothsome smile emoji]. This has a really great organ solo, so excellently performed, driven harder and seemingly faster with the rhythm section to boot. "Revolution" up next features some medieval-esque sounds. Charming and then booming. Another one forward-driving, despite the hard swing of the drums. Synth in the middle reminded me of Starcastle, yet this section is like Jazz-meets-Alt-meets-Melodic-Metal. In some sense, I think it had me wanting just a little bit more.

"Time the Great Healer"... I guess Roine's short stint recording with Jon Anderson rubbed off on the guy, huh? Emotive. The synth's airy timbre, impressive as all these thangs are today--before the compositional shift nearing minute 3--made me think of present-day Todd Rundgren keysmith Glasys [You should definitely take a moment to check out his insane videos on, in the very least, Instagram]. The experimental soloing and general soundscape, especially that of the bridge section, really saved this one for me. I was a bit skeptic at the start. "Letter" most immediately had me wondering if this was inspired, in part, by Frank Zappa (think Hot Rats or perhaps Uncle Meat). Quirky, exciting and eclectic, yet undeniably Art Pop. Pretty unorthodox for them, but I found it a real treat.

"Evolution"! Woah! Epic and classic! Recognizing here and now, since I've used the term 'epic' I think twice now, By Royal Decree quite surprisingly has no track over 8 minutes in length. Just one of the truly plenty-if-not-many reasons the album has been so approachable, this unsurprisingly (speaking as a fan of these Kings, this is a feat haha). We return to our 'feels' on "Silent Ways" (too pretty a track to make a fart joke? I'm not so sure...). Our first lead vox track in a while with the great Hasse Froberg, I welcome it always [Oh, wow, I haven't listened to "The Truth Will Set You Free" in a longer while...]. What I would think was the bridge has a lot of noggin-massagin', but I was definitely not in love with this track. Great ideas nonetheless.

"Moth" is... dark haha. And sad? Y'all into melancholia? Weird in the second half... Is this Danny Elfman? We about to hear this on the next Tim Burton film soundtrack? Sort of another out of character for the band, but good at what it does. "The Big Funk" begins with a... space Raga? Fantastic sound. The track features more Worldly sonic choices and instrumentation throughout. Again, triumphant, glorious, righteous feel. More Jon-Anderson-isms on "Open Your Heart"? Perhaps. Even on these sort of tracks, focused on emotion and their encouraging benedictions, they do find a way to stir interest. It's not boring, at least haha. In fact, like with the shifting and sliding into the outro, we get a tasty guitar solo from Roine.

Approaching the close, "Shrine" is a minute-long piano interlude, somewhat an intro to the final track, "Funeral Pyres" (perhaps weaker as both interlude and intro?). Roine's guitar is soulful and powerful on the latter track. The rhythm is slinky and loose, a bit of a foot-tapper. This is a Hasse vocals number. We get some mallet work, too! Around the midpoint, the rhythm shifts once more, into a bluesy, seemingly gospel-inspired section. Nice track overall, but not the most stellar closer in my opinion.

Happy to hear more from Stolt and Co, regardless, and of course I look forward to the next!

True Rate: 3.75/5.00

[Currently sitting in a newer cafe in my hometown I hadn't been to yet, and it's honestly as if a Target showroom spat up. Anyways, House Blend strikes again.] [This is now a day later, not at a Target-sponsored cafe, and god, I love this band.] [Editing this weeks later, as I can't help but do, I did in fact listen to their magnum opus, in my opinion, "The Truth Will Set You Free". Highly, highly recommend that classic.]

Let's face it, these guys are an extremely productive bunch of musicians! 140 minutes of music in a double album and this was not even the first time they did that! (Nor the last as a matter of fact!) You have to admire the Flower Kings only for their productivity if not anything else. But as we all know, quantity does not guarantee quality, so what's the deal with this one?

Here I think that the quantity of the music is a big factor that straightly affects the quality. I mean that any of the two discs would do for a very good album on its own, but the fact that there are two of them lessens the final effect they have on the listener.

The music of course is as always more than competent. The level of musisianship is top notch throughout the 141 minutes of the album, never failing to deliver. Strongly delved into 70s symphonic prog but with a somewhat modern approach especially on the rythm section and a lot of jazz moments thrown into the mix. Yes seems to be the most obvius point of reference, not only musically, but also in the logic of excess behind the way that this album was conceived and created.

As for the individual performances, the star that trully shines in my opinion is Jonas Reingold. His basslines were made to stand out from the rest of the orchestration without losing sense or cohesion. Listen to "Black and White' as a perfect example of this. Z. Csorsz and H. Bruniusson contribute greatly to the overall result adding some really well executed percussion as well. Tomas Bodin and R. Stolt are their usual selves, especially the former has some really imaginative moments. (see Silent Inferno).

As it frequently happens with TFK, the longer tracks are the more interesting of the bunch. It is where the band has a chance for a full out exposition of their musical and compositional skills. The lyrics, as usually again, is not their strong point, but nothing offensive either. All in all this is another album of what one might expect from TFK, only in... excess! I would give it 3,5 stars, but I shall give this extra half just for the accomplishment of making a more than 2 hours album without any real throwaway pieces. (Well, we could do without Soul Vortex, but you get the point!) So, 4 stars in total...

When I put myself to the task of listening back on through their discography, I'm not sure I knew what I was getting myself into, knowing full well that an hour+ is the norm... Fortunately for me, this 70-some minute debut from one of Sweden's best exports (in my opinion) isn't the "worst" of it. I find, starting here in 1995, The Flower Kings were fairly consistently great for nearly a decade straight. I'm curious how I'll feel now, as it's been years since I've seriously delved into these albums (I wonder why). A year following frontman Roine Stolt's third solo album, since then aptly named The Flower King (1994), the band of approximately the same name released this'n. I always felt that The Flower Kings and their truest contemporaries (Echolyn, Spock's Beard and IZZ, for instance), were heads and shoulders above the Neo-Prog of the '80s they followed (and thankfully departed from). Phenomenal, fresh compositions performed by exemplary musicians for a new generation of Prog listeners (in a very new world musically). These bands, I feel, paved the way for bands like Big Big Train, Transatlantic (shocker), The Tangent (also a shocker haha), Beardfish, Wobbler and the like.

"World of Adventures" starts us off in nearly full form. It's a now-classic balance of heavy and soft, melody and rhythm, and a great showcase of the band's overall talents (from all present instrumentalists to Roine's layered vocals). There's something about this composition that I feel has more in common with the American Prog of what I consider the Second Wave (Kansas, Styx, etc.) than it does with the original Prog of the UK and Europe at large. As a song, in good form (sometimes the Flower Kings have me wanting when it comes to the more basic things, if anything); awesome soloing later on, especially from the great Tomas Bodin. On the next, "Atomic Prince / Kaleidoscope", they capture the sort of Medieval vibe of Gentle Giant or Greenslade. The start is a show of Roine's own talents as a guitarist to truly be reckoned with (and this isn't even the best of it here). Calling from the other side of Prog, they evoke ambience and soundscape in the second half ("Kaleidoscope"). This, too, eventually falls away in its own way to lovely acoustic soloing.

One of the more memorable songs, by my current estimation, is "Go West Judas" [my estimation being correct]. When Roine (and Co.) go hard, they go hard. And even at 65 today (in 2022), he's still bringin' it (in recent, I'm glad to recommend "Owl Howl" by Transatlantic). After the 2 minute mark, back to his soloing, he has this quick little thing, but it is... anything but small haha. Crazy tone, too. And then the solo proper. Just sheesh (a tad Fusion, a tad neo-Classical). Around minute 4, the rhythm has a slight Reggae-type lilt. And then there's a hint of twang on it as we near the end (a la Steve Howe), though all the while we are set within this grandiose symphony. Epic; especially in its further classic evocations of Yes or Genesis. "...Judas" is juxtaposed to the thematically similar, though more positive (barely...) "Train to Nowhere". Love his voice or hate it--this is just before the happy inclusion of the much more vocally talented Hasse Fröberg--this is one of Roine's better vocal performances. As for the song, a lowlight, by the way. Continuing right along, we have the feature of Ulf Wallander on sax on the jazzy Space Rock of "Oblivion Road" (not dissimilar to Gong, but with more classic symphonic trills). Very chill.

In comparison, we enter the bombast on "Theme for a Hero", another where we get a fantastic performance by Bodin. And around minute 3, another moment of Howesque playing by Stolt. They are one of the best in generating moving material in [mini]epic form. Great bridge section around minute 5, and featuring awesome drumming by the excellent Jaime Salazar. An instrumental track and, to me, it's the strongest thus far. Next is the shortest of the bunch by far, the minute-and-a-half "Temple of the Snakes". Our apparent snake gods summon us forth at the start of the upbeat (Worldbeat?) "My Cosmic Lover". Such a cool feel over an amazing groove, fortified so strongly by Michael Stolt's bass playing. Classic melodies! Fantastic everything, really. At the end we get another sax feature from Ulf. Another stark juxtaposition is found in the next, "The Wonder Wheel", starting off soft and ethereal. Super classic, like something you might expect in the middle of a Happy the Man album? Really cool interlude track anyways. The album closer, "Big Puzzle", is almost the exact length of its opposite bookend (just over 13 minutes). Man! More Bodin, please! [Amazing he was effectively let go a few years back... Still don't know about it in depth.] Great melodies here, too! What's there to complain about? haha. It's a great Symphonic Prog epic by a great Symphonic Prog band!

Certainly not perfect, but truly an excellent debut record. Excited to dig into the rest. It's been far too long, and my body and mind are together readied.

Well, would you Adam 'n' Eve it! It's another Flower Kings studio album, but this time the cover art seems rather different in style from what we're used to seeing from the group. Don't let that fool you, though: to a large extent this is Flower Kings business as usual... which is kind of the problem with this release.

You see, if you'd been listening to the Kings' career chronologically up to this point you've already had a LOT of Flower Kings business as usual to digest - not simply because of the number of albums they released, but because of the sheer length of those albums, with the band frequently stuffing CDs to their time limits or putting out double CD albums of comfortably more than 2 hours long. This is very well-trod ground, and this time around it's feeling like Stolt and crew are going through the motions.

Possibly this was deliberate. The Rainmaker, which I thought was excellent, took a somewhat more moody and subdued atmosphere than we're used to hearing from the band and presented that in conjunction with an approach which still hit on some interesting sounds but didn't seem to be going out of its way to cram as many different ideas into the pot as possible (which earlier Kings releases had tended to). They followed that up with Unfold the Future, which was a return to a more traditional format for them but ended up going somewhat deeper than usual into their jazz fusion flirtations - that was less to my taste, but at least with the latter aspect something new was being tried, though to my ears away from the jazzier sections it seemed to be Flower Kings-by-numbers.

Still, perhaps even this departure was too much for some fans. Adam and Even seems like a studied exercise in mostly presenting the least musically challenging parts of the band's musical palette. Oh sure, sure, Love Supreme and Driver's Seat are epic in length, but in terms of what's actually musically presented in that length you're largely looking at the Kings' well-worn brand of early Yes combined with the odd mild gospel influence. It's all competently done, but where's the humour, where's the sense of surprise, where's the band who'd add a good dose of Zappa to their retro-prog gumbo to give it some more spice?

A further issue is presented with the approach to vocals. The harmony vocals are fine - it's the lead vocals that are the issue. being more prominently featured and with the band doing more bits where multiple lead vocalists each have bits on a song, which often ends up feeling more jarring than effective. The best vocals here are from Pain of Salvation's Daniel Gildenlöw, but this is its own problem - they're just good enough that you're left wishing that they'd just let him do all the leads and have Hasse and Roine concentrate on the harmonies.

On the whole, Adam and Eve is a title which should really suggest new beginnings, but on here the Flower Kings largely deliver the same-old-same-old. They did it fresher and with more surprises and flair on their 1990s albums, and I just don't see a compelling reason to get this if you already own those: just give one of them another spin and you'll get much the same as you have here. Two and a half stars.

So, just to be up front here, I am pretty new to the TFK train and have been making an effort to take the entire catalog all in. Given that there are some 15 studio albums, many of them 75 to 90 minutes and even longer, this has been a somewhat monumental task. I have taken all of them in order at least once to get a sense of the band's progression, and have listened to most of them more than once. I have also spent quite a bit of time reading the reviews for the albums as well, and wow what a mixed bag. Rightly so, this band garners considerable respect from the prog community, and yet there is a lot of love/hate responses to their ongoing evolution, which to me seems a bit fanatical. Admittedly, TFK does a lot of experimentation with different styles so not every song, or every album in its entirety, is going to appeal to everyone but overall in my opinion the diversity and evolution is a big part of their appeal.

For the record, I really enjoy well constructed epics and TFK has plenty of them, but the last three albums have deviated from this pattern pretty substantially. They have instead been constructed of mostly shorter songs, although still fairly lengthy in comparison to standard radio fare, and this seems to be a source of disappointment for many long time fans of the band. However, within this framework there is much room for experimentation and diversity. Admittedly, some of it is quite prog oriented, but other pieces not so much, and yet there is generally enough complexity to compensate for this.

While I clearly am not as qualified to review this band as many long time fans, being as I have enjoyed the recent release 'By Royal Decree', I am feeling up to the challenge of offering a new fan's perspective on this latest release. To start off the album cover is gorgeous and builds up anticipation for the music that it accompanies. This is a big plus for me as I have to say I really hate some of their album art, although the music in the albums is still great. So here is my take on music...

The Great Pretender: This is a great opening track that is diverse in musical ideas and tempos, and nice trading off of vocal duties. Enjoy the theatrical flavor of the hell and high water section of the song which is followed by a nice guitar solo, and then finishes with an enjoyable synth conclusion. A nice start! (9/10)

World Gone Crazy: Starts with a gradual build up, a quick riff or two, into a vocal section, at 3:30 breaks into a nother enjoyable synth section. Not overly prog, more rock, lyrics very apropos for our day. Ends with a repeat of the short opening riff. (7/10)

Blinded: Opens with somewhat eerie build up, becomes more upbeat, some semi jazzy guitar and instrumentation in a nice instrumental section in the middle. Around 5:30 builds back into the more ominous tone highlighting synths once again, ends with the jazzy flavor fading away. (8/10)

A Million Stars: A kind of spacey sounding ballad with lots of little tweaky synth sounds filtered through out, just a very pretty song. At 4:15 it sounds like the song is over, but changes to an even slower tempo and plays out to its conclusion. The first four minutes would make for a nice single. I always ponder if some portion of a prog album could be released to attract attention to widen the prog fan base; this could be it for this album. One of my favorite tracks on this album, but have to take a point away for the somewhat repetitive lyrics, but a small complaint really.... (9/10)

The Soldier: A pretty straight forward lyric oriented piece until it hits the 3:00 minute mark and a nice instrumental sections lifts it up, closes with more lyrics. Nice but nothing particularly new here (7/10)

The Darkness In You: I am a sucker for prog ballads and this is another good one. Has a nice slow musical atmosphere, nice backing harmonies to the primary vocals, nice closing blues guitar and piano. Another favorite for me (9/10)

We Can Make It Work: This one has a kind of Beatles vibe, 70's type sound, happy and upbeat. Quite a contrast to the previous track in mood and tempo. Short, fun, simple, and optimistic. Again, not particularly prog but enjoyable nonetheless (8/10)

Peacock on Parade: Related to the cover art? Perhaps. Starts with a nice instrumental build up. In fact, except for a very short lyrical interlude remains an instrumental throughout with musical duties shared by the various members of the band. Pleasant enough but nothing strikingly memorable either (7/10)

Revolution: This starts with a minstrel type vibe, upbeat and catchy, immediately draws you in. The vocal immediately makes me think of Jon Anderson in tone and style, especially at the outset of the vocals. This gradually fades away. Around the 4:00 mark, the Million Stars music and lyrics are reprized, but go up tempo and more dramatic. I really like this technique as it ties things together. It would have been quite doable to put the Million Stars track and this one together and had a nice suite, and a mini epic. Interesting that they did not choose to do this. (9/10)

Time the Great Healer: This one is for the first three minutes is very vocal oriented with a soft under side of straight forward musical accompaniment. After this it picks up with an array of synth and guitar, more unusual synth gyrations, and closes with repeat of the vocals over the more uptempo musicianship. Second half of the song saves this one, overall not bad. (8/10)

Letter: A very short prog pop type offering. Didn't particularly like this the first time I heard it but it has grown on me as a nice interlude. It may be just me but for some reason when I first heard this song, even though they are quite different from one another, it reminded me straight away of 'Don't Go' from the Yes album Magnification. In any event, I'll call it a keeper. (8/10)

Evolution: The first complete instrumental track. A mid tempo piece with nice synth and keyboard foundation with enjoyable bass and lead guitar over. (8/10)

Silent Ways: Starts slow and low, acoustic oriented ballad, nice vocal, around 3:00 starts to build up a bit in intensity, electric guitar eventually comes in. Again, not particularly prog, but I like it. (8/10)

Moth: A mournful sounding song, piano based, another ballad. At 2:45 there is a pause and the piece begins to come back and pick up some depth and gentle intensity and choir like vocals to close it out. (7/10)

The Big Funk: After the last two very calm ballads, this one starts slow but gradually builds up a bit with some good guitar and synth interplay. About halfway through the tempo picks up a bit more, but never fully takes off. (7/10)

Open Your Heart: A bit more uptempo ballad with some pleasant synth and keyboard under layment, a little restrained guitar interplay especially at the end, mostly vocal oriented. (7/10)

Shrine: A very short piano instrumental. What is there not to like about this? (8/10)

Funeral Pyres: Starts with some guitar with a bit of power in it. Been waiting for this after a sequence of more ballad type pieces. Lots of things going on this one with tempo and instrument changes, one of the more prog oriented efforts. Nice build up to the end. A decent closer for the album (9/10)

So what are my take aways for 'By Royal Decree'? First of all, this comes across as a very accessible effort with a satisfying degree of complexity and prog sensibilities. That being said, there are portions that are not particularly prog-centric, but still seem to fit anyway. All in all, while not rating any song as perfect 10 although some are very close, there is nothing bad in the entire 94 minutes of music. It's a lot to absorb but worth the effort.

I can see where long time fans of TFK will miss the longer epics and wilder experimentation of past albums, but this work certainly has its merits also. It can definitely expose the band to new listeners for sure as it wouldn't be a bad place to start their catalog. That being said, I would be the first to admit that it is not necessarily a direct representation of their past work, but what would be given its grand scope and volume?

Most prog oriented songs if you want to focus on those are 'the Great Pretender', 'Blinded', 'A Million Stars', 'Darkness in You', 'Revolution', 'Time the Great Healer', and 'Funeral Pyres'.

Log time fans given to their older style may not agree, but I am going with 4 star score, not for how it compares to their past work, but on its own merits, especially from a new fan's perspective.

By the early 2000s The Flower Kings were developing a reputation as The Prog Band Who Doesn't Leave Anything On The Cutting Room Floor - regularly putting out sprawling double-CD albums which crammed as much music as possible onto both discs. Whilst these albums would usually offer you over 2 hours of good music, a little trimming could have dialed most of them back to 90 or so minutes of great music, and I personally thought Unfold The Future took the schtick too far, a slightly forced attempt to go back to that Stardust We Are/Flower Power model after two albums which managed to be pretty good and restrict themselves to a single disc each. (Indeed, I think their best studio album of their 1995-2002 run was The Rainmaker, one of those single-CD affairs.)

So it was some trepidation that I listened to Meet The Flower Kings - a live album with over 2 and a half hours of music, and focused solely on Flower Kings epics - the shortest song here being an over 10 minute rendition of Circus Brimstone from Stardust We Are. A good cross-section of the band's albums are represented - the full half-hour Truth Shall Set You Free is here from Unfold The Future, as is Silent Inferno, the title track from Stardust We Are rounds off the set, you get Humanizzimo from Roine Stolt's The Flower King solo album, and there's a rendition of Garden of Dreams from Flower Power which trims back its epic hour-long length into a comparatively tight 44 minutes.

It's that last point which gave me a sliver of hope - clearly, the Kings were actually willing to trim back the filler, and that's part of what makes this live album such a treat. The other is that the band are both talented enough to pull off these marathon tracks in a live context and manage to inject them with a verve which was sometimes missing from the studio versions. The Unfold the Future material particularly benefits here - they sound like they are actually enjoying themselves, there's a warmth here that was a little missing from that slightly sterile album, and in general it just seems to have a little extra spark to it that the Unfold the Future version was missing.

Sure, it's another 2CD feast, but when it's a live album with a carefully curated setlist that's much less of a burden than when it's a studio CD which is throwing in filler to pad out the length. Nicely, there is almost no overlap in terms of song selection with their previous 2CD live album, Alive On Planet Earth - the only song that appears on both is Stardust We Are, and on Alive On Planet Earth that's a 10 minute cut down version (essentially just part 3 of the whole package), not the full rendition we get here.

Once again I am left substantially more impressed with a live release from the Flower Kings than I was with some of their studio efforts. On the one hand, their talents as live musicians are a thing to applaud. On the other hand, that's more evidence that on their studio albums had a bad habit at this point of time of emphasising quantity over quality.

Weighing in at over 140 minutes, Unfold the Future is the longest of The Flower Kings' albums, and the third of their two- hour-plus monstrosities alongside Stardust We Are, Flower Power, and the subsequent Paradox Hotel. Later 2CD releases from them have either explicitly designated the second disc as bonus tracks or not used the entire running span of the CDs - the Kings perhaps belatedly have realised that 90 or so minutes of very high-quality music is more satisfying than over 2 hours of music which is a mixture of great moments and weaker ones.

Certainly, after two somewhat tighter releases (Space Revolver and The Rainmaker), one might have reason to worry that Roine Stolt and his buddies had once again decided to just stop editing and throw every musical idea they had into the album until they had once again filled two CDs to bursting point. Certainly, the somewhat repetitive opening epic The Truth Will Set You Free gives reason to be concerned; there's various fun musical sections in there, but they keep looping around to an underwhelming chorus and it feels like the song's cannibalised a bunch of different compositions solely for the sake of padding it out so this album can have its super-long epic.

Unfortunately, things don't pick up once it's over. Roine seems to have decided to include more lyrics and vocals - a problem since they seem particularly weak this time around - but, more fatally, the music as a whole seems rather directionless and meandering. It's pretty enough, but it feels like an exercise in Flower Kings-by-numbers, jamming away with one eye on the clock until the two CDs are filled to try and pander to the expectations established by Stardust We Are and Flower Power. I miss The Rainmaker, and the additional focus that album had, already - and, for that matter, I miss the band's sense of fun, since the more whimsical moments their pre-Rainmaker work was notable for seem to be absent from this.