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Änglagård vs Opeth vs The Flower Kings
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Poll Question: Vote for your favourite!
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
21 [36.21%]
19 [32.76%]
18 [31.03%]
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tempest_77 View Drop Down
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Points: 1667 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote tempest_77 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 01 2021 at 20:51
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by tempest_77 tempest_77 wrote:

Any of them that aren't The Flower Kings

Wow, what do you have against the Flower Kings? Too retro sounding? Just wondering.

I'm actually a big fan of a few Flower Kings albums, namely the Roine Stolt eponymous 1994 record, the band's first two records, and most especially Banks of Eden. They don't interest me quite as much as a band like Änglagård, whose music I find to be at least slightly less retro prog, though still heavily influenced by 70s prog, and whose composition and production just sounds fresher to me—couldn't tell you exactly why. However, I still think The Flower Kings are a great band who have some great records.

My problem with The Flower Kings is records like Stardust We Are, Flower Power, Unfold the Future, and Paradox Hotel—these lengthy albums that clock in well past 2 hours and for me just feel like they drag on endlessly. To me, these albums represent many of the problems with prog rock—these massive "epic" compositions that wander aimlessly over the course of two CDs and don't really get anywhere. There's a reason that Banks of Eden is my favorite Flower Kings record—it's very musically excellent and satisfying while remaining more succinct, clocking in at under an hour. I enjoy The Flower King and Back in the World of Adventures, but even with those records I start to see a little bit of the issue that surfaces on their double albums—the band is just trying to put too much music into one record.

Now, once again, that's not to say that I dislike the Flower Kings—I actually really enjoy a lot of their music. However, largely for the reasons listed above, for me they don't nearly approach the tier of bands like Änglagård or Opeth.
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Opeth
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Points: 18483 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 17:27
I like Anglagard but don't see what "new" stuff they have brought to prog. If they did it was a long time ago. Their 2012 album was basically just a rehash of their 90's albums. Great band but so are the Flower Kings. You don't have to bring something new to be good. Heck you don't even have to bring something new to be prog. If that was the case then at least 50 percent(if not more) of the music that gets labelled prog isn't prog.
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for me the choice was easy ... The Flower Kings Tongue
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Anglagard > The Flower Kings > Opeth
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Points: 3895 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dougmcauliffe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 11:39
^ I'm with you, Ghost Reveries gang! Personally Pale Communion is my favorite non-growl Opeth record, and probably my second favorite overall sandwiched between GR and Still Life, so good!
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Points: 6737 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 10:09
Originally posted by Tapfret Tapfret wrote:

I find nothing interesting or essential about TFK... at all.

Well you took a lot less words to say how I feel. My mum always did accuse me of having. Verbal diarrhoea....

Heritage is my favourite of the Opeth albums sans growls, but my overall favourite is probably Ghost Reveries. I have a feeling, though, that it might be because that was the album where the band finally clicked for me, and where I finally overcame my aversion to the harsh vocals.

I think, objectively, Watermark is probably a better album that Ghost Reveries - but my heart overrules my head here, and I’ll go for Ghost Reveries every time!
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Points: 8581 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Tapfret Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 09:58
I find nothing interesting or essential about TFK... at all.

Hybris is probably the best post-classic era symphonic album out there. But to me Änglagård just fall short of Opeth for the entirety of discography, uniqueness, and evolution/career arc. I'm not the biggest fan of Opeth's first few albums, but they really clicked after Blackwater Park. To me, Watershed is the finest example of a classic prog/death metal hybrid. Then their retro albums are pure gold. I'm a much bigger fan of Heritage than most.

Anyway, Opeth takes my vote easily.

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Points: 6737 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 09:27
i will be disappointed, yet unsurprised, if The Flower Kings take the lead from Opeth. No matter how much talent the band holds, I don’t think they have brought anything new to prog the way Änglagård and Opeth have. Even though all three have retro tendencies, Änglagård and Opeth have never sounded stilted or dated, the way TFK often seem to me. Obviously, it’s personal preference, and very subjective, but TFK do nothing for me. They’re a band like Big Big Train or Wobbler that seem to inspire great devotion, yet with the exception of a few songs fail to raise any great emotion in me - positive or negative. Their music comes across to me as that bland and unchallenging, that I can’t even be bothered to state that I dislike them. There’s as much there for me to dislike as to like - near to nothing. But I can see the appeal for those who enjoy that sort of music, and I will expect them to eventually usurp Opeth in this poll. It’s somewhat inevitable.
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Points: 18483 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 08:11
I personally won't vote in polls where I don't know all the artists(maybe in larger ones but not when there's only three). I don't know Opeth that well so I didn't vote. I think Anglagard and TFK are great though.
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Originally posted by essexboyinwales essexboyinwales wrote:

Went with Opeth. Don't know Anglagard.

Would have Kaipa ahead of Opeth anyway🙂

You, sir, need to check out Änglagård! Their three studio albums are on YouTube and I suggest you start with Hybris. The music is powerful, complex, dark, beautiful and unique.
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Points: 18483 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 07:56
Originally posted by tempest_77 tempest_77 wrote:

Any of them that aren't The Flower Kings

Wow, what do you have against the Flower Kings? Too retro sounding? Just wondering.
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essexboyinwales View Drop Down
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Points: 5157 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote essexboyinwales Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 07:51
Went with Opeth. Don't know Anglagard.

Would have Kaipa ahead of Opeth anyway🙂
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Points: 9872 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote geekfreak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 07:48
The Flower Kings
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Manuel View Drop Down
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I'm going with The Flower Kings.
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Points: 3895 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dougmcauliffe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 06:54
Anglagard is an extremely bold and talented symphonic prog band with not a dud in sight

The flower kings are lovely, they have my 2020 Album of the year

But Opeth I just hold to a whole different level. My second favorite band of all time only second to Camel, I love pretty much everything they’ve ever done and watching them progress and present a new sound album to album... nothing better
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Points: 6026 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamesbaldwin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 06:24
Surely Anglagard.
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Points: 6737 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2020 at 03:59
For the longest time, this was my experience of Opeth as well. And it’s why this poll is so easy for me. Because how many bands exist out there, that make so many people attempt to leave their comfort zones to try (and often try and try again) to appreciate the music.

I’ve met so many people who have had experiences similar to mine, where an absolute abhorrence and avoidance of Cookie Monster vocals has meant that we should not even have been approaching Opeth. And yet, from Blackwater Park onwards, every album they released I would be at a listening post in a record store trying to get my head around the music, and ultimately failing because of the vocals. Ugh! Horrendous. No matter how much I liked whatever else I might hear, those harsh vocals ruined it all for me.

Strangely, I expected to like Damnation (given it featured no harsh vocals), but it didn’t really appeal to me, and I was drawn more to Deliverance - and repelled in equal measure. At the time I thought I was alone in perversely returning to something that clearly wasn’t for me. I was never going to like those vocals. Since the advent of social media (or, at least as I was late to coming to it, since I joined the social media bandwagon), I have discovered I was not alone.

Opeth has led many listeners on a merry dance, like a Pied Piper drawing us back time and time again, seemingly against our own best interests. There’s no way you could say that for The Flower Kings.

I still don’t like harsh vocals. I doubt I ever will. But I can tolerate them now, and so much so that not only have I now bought much of Opeth’s discography, but I have continued to explore the world of extreme metal. Opeth were like a gateway drug, and once I could get past my aversion and revulsion of harsh vocals, a whole new musical world opened up. There’s more in it that I don’t like (and possibly never will), but I’m grateful to Opeth for giving me that key.

Regardless of the musical talent of any of the three bands here, Opeth deserve to be number one because they have broadened the musical horizons of so many.
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Lewian View Drop Down
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Not really a fan of any of these overall, but Opeth has some mightily good music that I can properly enjoy where the singing is either bearable or absent.
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I would have voted if there was an option 'All three'
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