WHO'S THE BOSS IN THE FACTORY?

The Flower Kings is (or are, but anyway) a rather unique band that have released absolutely wondrous albums throughout its existence in such a way that, by now, the band has reached some kind of mythical place in the progressive rock Pantheon alongside with the traditional important progressive rock bands, such as Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Genesis. So, like it or not, those kings of flowers are a must for anyone that is exploring the world of progressive rock and is experiencing the many styles or sub-genres of progressive rock since its sudden reappearance in the early 90's, because they are such an important band for the genre for the past 15 years and released a studio album almost every year, having a rather extense discography.

However, in recent years, since the release of their 2007 album entitled The Sum of No Evil, the core band members begun working more eagerly on their own solo projects than on the band itself: Roine Stolt put out an album of yet another solo project of his, called Agents of Mercy, and got together with his old friends and regrouped Transatlantic, Tomas Bodin released two solo albums since 2007, which are called Cinematograaf and You Are (with another band called Eggs & Dogs rather than by himself, but he is the leader of it anyway), the second part of the trilogy started in the 2005 album I AM, and, last but now least, Jonas Reingold released this album, entitled Who's The Boss In The Factory?.

There is one problem, however, with those solo efforts from those band members of Flower Kings: since they are the main writers of the band, in one way or another, their solo albums will sound like a Flower Kings album, but, since they are solo efforts, the result is, most of the times, not as great as it could be. Karmakanic's latest effort is in no way an exception to that rule. Who's The Boss In The Factory? is not a bad album by itself, but the thing is there seems to be something missing, and THAT something missing is what make this album's overall quality suffer. Of course, there are new things here that you would not expect to be in a Flower Kings album, and those are very pleasant surprises, but still unable to fully bring the album up or to make the album brighter.

The only song that really stand out is the opening track, entitled Leave a Message from the Heart, which is a great epic, but honorable mentions need to be done to the enthusiastic Two Blocks from the Edge and to the melodic and sentimental Eternally (parts 1 and 2)

The highlights go to: Leave a Message from the Heart, Two Blocks from the Edge and Eternally.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Who's The Boss In The Factory? is a quite good album, I must say, but it is unable to give me any thrills beyond the opening track, and do remembers quite a lot that other Swede band called Flower Kings. Because of all that, three stars.

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