BANKS OF EDEN

The gratuitous adoration of this masterpiece of a Flower Kings album (sorry for being redundant) came to me much the same way it did for every other one of their works. Upon first listen, everything went over my head. Second listen, I thought it was probably one of their worst albums. Third, I suppose Love of Gold is pretty great. Fourth, Oh good god the first and second verses of Rising the Imperial are beautiful. Fifth, NUMBERS. ROCKS SO HARD. Sixth time I loved every bit of it, LOOK up that skyline, there's a bad moon rising! GROOVY.

Don't be scared off if you cannot comprehend Numbers, for as Meistro Stolt himself said, "It is NOT easy listening, give it some time and I think people will like it." This album has everything you could want out of the Kings, and consequently out of "Symphonic Prog" in general. Every track is special, every part fits perfectly, no filler or out of place material. And of course the compositions are mind-blowingly executed and are just pure genius. Especially the way Numbers and Rising the Imperial fit the album together.

If you love Prog, if you love The Flower Kings, If you love beautiful melodies, technical mastery, compositional genius, and wondrous emotion, buy yet another masterpiece from the fair and benevolent rulers of Progressive rock.

"We are millions, we are one, From the flower to the sun, together we can make a change!"