ADAM & EVE

After the amazing Unfold the Future, which followed the same eclectic style since 2000 with Space Revolver, The Flower Kings with Adam & Eve return to the more straight-forward Symphonic Prog, like they did in their early days, without the jazzy leanings from Ulf's sax and Jonas' fretless bass which was characteristic from their classic albums like the already mentinoed Space Revolver and Unfold the Future.

Obviously this was a great dissapointment for TFK fans waiting something better or at least in the same style of Unfold the Future. I luckily, didn't know Unfold the Future before I knew this one, or at least didn't want something similar to Space Revolver which I had before.

This album as Space Revolver, contains 10 songs, which make the album with more chances of being consistent like Space Revolver was/is. Fortunately this album is also consistent, one of the things I love so much about this album, as well as Space Revolver. Don't get me wrong, Space Revolver, despite the consistency similarity, is barely similar to Adam & Eve. Now to the songs:

The album opens up with the typical epic opener, Love Supreme.(Just in case, this has nothing to do with Love Supreme by John Coltrane, nor the version of McLaughlin and Santana). Love Supreme does have some similarity to The Truth Will Set You Free because of the percussion intro and some melodies, but like I said earlier, the jazzy influences making so characteristic that epic, isn't here. Love Supreme has overall a very acoustic feel almost all throughout the song, with, like always, a excellent composition and musicianship. To say the least, a very smooth, yet highly entertaining epic, and of course, a grandiose opener, which sets the whole mood the album will follow.

The album follows the acoustic mood with Cosmic Circus, a melodic soft tune that flows perfectly with the previous big epic, just like Dream on Dreamer does with I Am The Sun Part 1.

Follows up a short but great symphonic instrumental called Babylon, with some nice moog and a very cheerful melody.

Obviously Roine Stolt knows how to ''build'' a album, not letting a certain mood dominate the album, so Roine & Co. delivers the haunting and powerful, A Vampires View with Daniel Gildenlöw from Pain of Salvation, on lead vocals suiting very well the haunting mood. As very well others said before me, it's a quite unique tune for The Flower Kings' catalogue, not the best tune on the album, however unique.

To follow the haunting mood Roine puts on a typical instrumental-passage of the same kind, lead by a dramatic piano, called Days Gone By, which will open the next haunting and powerful tune which is the title tracl. Adam & Eve(the song) features a very similar metal-esque riff to I Am The Sun Part 1, though by no means this song follows the same symphonic path I Am The Sun does. Still Adam & Eve stands alone as a killer Heavy Progger, with great guitar and moog solos, making a great enjoyable tune. Also this song is the last of the 'haunting' or at least dark trilogy, started by A Vampires View.

After 3 sombre and powerful tunes, Roine delivers another up-lifting sophisticated pop tune ala Cosmic Circus called Starlight Man, with the acoustic feel again. I find it highly enjoyable every now and then, with a great bass playing and a decent guitar solo to keep my attention, as well as the catchy up-lifting melody.

Roine moves on to Prog territory once again with Timelines, which starts powerfully and somewhat dissonant. Which then moves brilliantly to a soft piece lead by the acoustic guitar, extremely catchy and by no means pop. For what the song lasts, I have to say that the song develops gently and brilliant, with some mellotron here and there, some Fripp guitar-cliches, also some very bluesy organ followed by a great guitar solo, in which the song will end up fierceful as the begining. Definitely my favorite track of the album, and one of the bests from here as well.

As you may notice, this album is missing quite the Symphonic epicness as they used to have in their first albums. Well Driver's Seat gives you 18 minutes of it. With a tremendous vast of mood changes, which pittily some don't flow well, but overall it's stunning, with classic symphonic moog, Squire-alike bass playing, and once again excellent guitar.

To end the album, they wrote The Blade of Cain, a excellent instrumental, with a lot of energy emitted by the powerful melodies created by the organ and guitar. However the song finishes acoustic, and finally ending with the sound of wind.

Adam & Eve is definitely a odd album for The Flower Kings, since it shows The Flower Kings' darkest attempts as well as softest, which in the following, Paradox Hotel, these will be neutralised, not heading to too haunty-esque nor too soft.

Adam & Eve has, IMO, the same amount of great material as Space Revolver, so if you're looking for a consistent album like Space Revolver, this is one of them. Of course, the great material from Space Revolver definitely beats the great material from here, but nonethless this album is excellent.

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