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If it weren't for the title track. With the success of The Flower King album, Roine Stolt put together a touring band, which became The Flower Kings, and began a 20+ year journey and legacy. This album is a good follow-up to Stolt's Flower King. It contains some of the band's most classic compositions. The closer, "Big Puzzle", is one of them, and up there among the best of the band's catalogue. There are some great instrumental songs here too, with "Atomic Prince/ Kaleidoscope" and "Theme for a Hero" being the most notable. Unfortunately, most Flower Kings albums are a bit longer than they need to be, and in turn usually contain one or two songs that need not have been on the album. On this one, there are two songs that I am not as keen on. "Cosmic Lover" has quite a different style than the rest of the album (almost a dance groove) and for me breaks the flow, while the lyrics do nothing for me (lyrics are not usually the strong suit on Flower Kings albums). The other one is actually the title track, which I find too derivative of Crimson and other classic progressive rock bands, and the lyrics border on trite. However, even without these two tracks, the album is almost an hour long, and the quality of the rest of the tracks are very high. On balance, I give this 8.5 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 4 PA stars. If you like The Flower King album, this is the natural next up (but that debut is even better).

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