THE FLOWER KING

So we go back to 1994 and the Genius Roine Stolte's guitar sounds out the genesis of The Flower Kings......This CD has some exquisite guitar licks and basically the instrumentals are the the highlights. "The magic circus of Zeb" - marvellous guitar and Stolte also giving the keyboards a whirl to good effect. "The Pilgrims Inn" also show-cases some virtuoso guitar work and is an excellent instrumental effort. I also love "The sounds of violence" - sort of janty ELP stylee that is an instant hit with my ears. The one song with lyrics I love is "Dissonata", which has some yummy synth runs and Hackettesque guitar ghosting out and then POWER IN. The title track isn't the best but it's not as dissapointing as the Epic "Humanizzimo" which is definately a curates egg, nice bit of Church organ, but spoilt by the silly christian imagery. Now lets get things straight, Stolte should stick to his Hippy "Love & peace" message which always seems to accompany his music very well - Nothing wrong with Love and Peace - but why doesn't he mention the Flying Spaghetti Monster - which has been claimed (SIC) to touch its followers (PASTAFARIANS) with it's NOODLY APPENDAGES ?? Anyway - This is a four star jobby because of the FOUR excellent compositions. Peace.