BANKS OF EDEN

Album #11 for the Flower Kings came in a particularly strong period for progressive rock, 2011-13, with many bands releasing some of their strongest, even best albums. 'Banks of Eden' also marked a return for the band after some five years of inactivity, in terms of studio releases, and is a gracefully successful achievement for the band.

This is a classic-sounding TFK album, and that surely denotes symphonic progressive rock with lush instrumental intros, mesmerizing vocal harmonies, abstract lyrics that could be the object of deciphering for hours, lengthy and bluesy guitar solos, pounding bass, hectic drumming, and tremendous Genesis-inspired keyboard sections, dreamy passages, and unexpected twists all along the way ' everything that you get from the opening track 'Numbers', the 25-minute goliath track, one that ranks as high as other classics by the Flower Kings, like 'Stardust We Are', 'Love Supreme', and 'The Truth Will Set You Free'.

'For the Love of God' is an uplifting and melodic track, it depicts perfectly the more pastoral side of the band that has little hints of Camel or Yes.

'Pandemonium' is among the highlights of the album, a song where every note works perfectly and not a single second sounds wasted. Built around Stolt's acrobatic guitar playing, the peculiar verses he sings through the vocoder, the catchy chorus and Bodin scratching the moog are the things that make this a really special track.

'For Those About to Drown' is another enjoyable piece of Flowery brilliance, very symphonic and playful, a bit more light-weight compared to the rest of the album but it still fits really good and helps build the bigger picture.

'Rising the Imperial' was written by Jonas Reingold, and here the listener is presented with the main theme that was previously used on 'Numbers', a truly magnificent couple of lines that do the magic; It is a worthy ending to a stunning album that sounds well organized, concentrated, yet it is adventurous and peculiar like everything this band delivers.

This certainly ranks very high among my most favorite albums by the band, it is a beautiful example of modern symphonic rock, a bit safer than some of the records they put out before it but so well executed that it is hard to neglect this as an unworthy of praise!