BACK IN THE WORLD OF ADVENTURES

The superb thirteen minutes long epic World Of Adventure opens this album and there is no doubt that this is an adventure into symphonic prog land. The references to THE BEATLES, GENESIS and YES are obvious. The music superb with a lot of nice details. But still, pretty commercial. The soundscapes of ELP, it's most definate not. The music is based on guitars and keyboards. Pretty good guitars too. Roine Stolt's trademarks is pretty evident here. The guitars, the vocals and the arrangements. Add the epics too. All of them with a typical Scandinavian slant. The Scandinavian depression as they called the Ingmar Bergman plays. Is Roine Stolt in the playwriter Ingmar Bergman mould ? An interesting thought I just got..... The mood on this album is most definate depressive and moody at times. Which in my mind enhance this album. If my memory serves me right, KAIPA was in the same mould too. I need to investigate this further, me thinks.

This is the first official THE FLOWER KINGS album and it is a very impressive album too. Although I do not care much about the trippy jazzy new age soundscapes thrown in here, I very much like the songs here. The opening track is superb. The closing track Big Puzzle is superb too. In addition to the typical Roine Stolt trademarks, we are also treated to some funk on this album. Which makes this album even more interesting. Other and more knowledgeable people has written more and better essays/reviews about this album so I will not tire you with more talking. But to quote the big Kazak philosopher Borat: I like this very much ! That is my verdict about this album. That's why I am have flashed my credit card towards the rest of the outputs from THE FLOWER KINGS.

4 stars.