BY ROYAL DECREE

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.]