UNFOLD THE FUTURE

I have listened to this magnificent double disc album more times than I could count, since I bought it in december, 2002, just after I read a great 6/6 review in the Norwegian metal/rock magazine "Scream". Even though I practically know the album inside out, I keep returning to it again and again. Why is that? I guess......no...I know it's a damn masterpiece og progressive rock. You won't see Arena/Marillion/Pendragon kind of Neo Prog anywhere on this album(even though I also like those bands), I honestly can't compare this music to any band, old or new. I know Roine Stolt is a big fan of Genesis(his son is called Peter Gabriel(!) and his recordlabel is called Foxtrot), and yes, there are a bit of Genesis in "Unfold The Future". But there was much more Genesis in the first few FK albums. That's a good sign, cos it means Roine & co found their own style.

The album opens with the fantastic, epic, melodic, sparkling 30 minute suite "The Truth Will Set You Free". If I had a gun pointing at my head and had to compare this composition to another band, I would say Yes, at around "Tales From Topographic Oceans". All the way from the xylophone opening to the moody end, it's a tour de force of rich textured progressive rock. Unlike anything I heard before, the first time I heard it I was mesmerized! It is, in my humble opinion of the greatest songs ever, but the last track on disc 2, "Devil's Playground" is even better! It starts with a menacing "cello-like" opening, a bit like Transatlantic's "Stranger In Your Soul". It really sets you in the mood and makes you curious what could be next. And the answer is an Anekdoten like "ugly" riff, more than a bit like the track "Nucleus". And along this 24 minute rollercoasteride we are also taken through some wicked jazz, and as always great prog like only The Flower Kings can make, before it all ends with an amazing emotional vocal workout by Daniel Gildenlöw(Pain Of Salvation).......simply breathtaking.

But that's only the first and the last track, what about the stuff in the middle? We are taken to the local theatre and a "mini-opera" in the wicked "Rolling The Dice", we get real jazz with trumpet in "The Devil's Playground", written by the rhythm section of Jonas Reingold and Zoltan Csorsz. We get some lovely breathtaking melodies in "Solitary Shell" and "The Navigator" And some freejazz ala "Moonchild" (King Crimson) in "Christianopel". And also a few shorter "normal" songs, quite good they too, but the epics are the best.

All in all, a great great great album, a masterpiece of progressive rock.