Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Ahh,  Good to know Cacho, I'll keep that in mind as I get new albums.

I pre ordered Frequency and Black Clouds, next on my list will probably be one of Phideaux' new CD's. 

I think Frequency is going to start shipping this month.  I haven't heard anything on a new Flower Kings album.

Roland113 wrote:     Don't fear completion...if I may ask, which two are you missing?  Haven't heard Agents of Mercy yet.

progrules wrote: CCVP wrote: cacho wrote: Hey guys! Been wanting to check some other modern Symphonic Prog bands, I already know the 'classics', as you already know, Flower Kings, Tangent, Transatlantic, Karmakanic... still need to check Spock's Beard... but still, any others? I was wondering about Frost*, or some others... EDIT: oh also I've checked some Glass Hammer, though it didn't click me, as well as IQ's latest stuff(Dark Matter) Wow, Glass Hammer is one of my all-time favorite retro-prog bands.   Mine too ! I'm very disappointed about the average rating of Inconsolable Secret, some 3,19. Can you believe that ?? As I say in my review: if you would put Knight of the North, Maker of Crowns, Long and Long ago and Having caught a Glimpse on one disk you would have a sheer masterpiece !! But because they put some weaker songs on the second disk most raters and reviewers give it 2 or 3 stars. Such a shame ! (Lirazel isn't really bad either by the way). Overall Glass Hammer is an underrated band I believe.   Some people say they lack personality. There is some truth in that maybe. The songs aren't really powerful and extremely original. But still I like them a lot !

I don't know what is about Glass Hammer for me.  I picked up Chronomotree in anticipation of their Nearfest performance back in 2003 (hadn't heard any of their stuff, and that was their next to most recent album at the time).  Loved it (and still enjoy it).  At their Nearfest performance I was bored out of my mind.  It seemed like something I should enjoy, but just seemed to drag on and on (I did enjoy the 2 songs from Chronomotree and the Kansas number they did with Rich Williams on guitar).  I pretty much gave up on them after than.  Then, a couple years ago, they had an epic track on The Odysse (Collusus project), and I really liked that song.  So, last year I picked up their latest album Culture of Ascent.  I liked the first few song, but the long tracks I find kind of boring.  Not sure how to explain it but they just seem kind of bland and generic to me.  I appreciate what they do, and they are very talented musicans, but so much of what they play just does nothing for me.

I'm curious though, since I like Chronomotree so much and that track they did on the Odysse, if it would be worth it to me to try any of their other albums (Lex Rex is probably out, since that was most of their set at Nearfest)?

infandous wrote: progrules wrote: infandous wrote: Okay everyone.  I've added a thread to the suggested bands forum for Agents Of Mercy.  I expect to see you all there cheering on it's inclusion on the archives    Sorry for my late reaction (I'm not in the forum EVERY day you know) but I will attend to it right now !   By the way, Mike. I often wondered: why aren't you promoted to prog reviewer yet ? You're on PA for quite some time now and have done some great reviews so far. Have they (admin team) overlooked you or have you refused to become prog reviewer (always a possibility of course  ).   In case they overlooked, shall I do a recommendation to the admin team ? Sure, if you'd like I've just never really worried about it really.  Appreciate your comments about my reviews.  Some of my very old ones (when I used a different email address.......2005 - 2006 or so) make me cringe now......though I've actually rewritten some of them since I appear as a different member now (even though I'm not ). Also, my understanding was the you had to start threads in the forum and add a band or something to get "promoted".  My Agents of Mercy thread is my first one I've ever started And you're not on the forum EVERY day???  What, you have a life or something?    (actually, I just have an easy going work place, so I'm able to check in here just about every day)

progrules wrote:   Like I said, Inconsolable Secret is magnificent, Knight of the North is even better than their Odyssey track. Also Shadowlands is a great album. You could  check these out both and not get disappointed. Although I must admit The Odyssey track is of extreme quality. Are you going to do the review of The Odyssey some day ? It's a real challenge (haven't really worked it out myself to be honest) and probably the best epic collection ever ! (though Spaghetti 3 is also excellent).

Actually, I did review it quite a while ago.  The problem is, I wasn't officially a member at the time, as at that time you had to put an email in a specific place on the control panel in order to have a link to your name and all your reviews (or something like that).  I've actually been posting reviews here since 2005!  If you search under infandous (but with no link), or infandous@exc  ..............  I think I changed emails in 2006 or so, so that didn't help either.  Anyway, it's all sorted now, and I am resubmitting reviews that are under those other id's whenever I come across them (sometimes I rewrite them, but mostly I just resubmit them as is).

I just resubmitted the Odyssey, so you should find mine there now.  I gave it 4 stars.  It's a brief review, but I don't think it's really feasible to do a song by song analysis on an album like that.  Who would have the patience to read it?  

angelmk wrote: i would say Just This Once and Church Of Your Heart are my fav tracks these days,. listen to it over and over .. the Flower Kings are amazing

Definitely 

I was listening to "The End Of Innocence" in the car today. What a glorious track, and one that hardly ever gets mentioned.

I know that I'll be listening to The Flower Kings until the end of my days because it's possible to actually overlook a fabulous track such as this when it's on a double CD crammed with brilliance. Then one day, you're listening to it properly for the first time and it's like "Wow, how did I miss that one?"

If anyone has overlooked "The End Of Innocence", go back and have another listen and see what I mean

To quote you; "the Flower Kings are amazing"











Edited by Nov - May 12 2009 at 17:38

^ah, fans of their 90's stuff, hmm, I still need to check Stardust and Flower Power, but I doubt they can overpass Space Revolver and Unfold The Future.

The one 90's Flower Kings album I do really enjoy in the heights of the mentioned before, is Roine's solo album, TFK, simple stunning.

^ I sense a gauntlet being thrown here.

"Just this Once" is a fantastic tune, though I do cheat.  I've forced iTunes and my MP3 player to skip the sirens in the very beginning.

I had to actually listen to a few bars of "The End of Innocence" to figure out which song it was.  I can't say that I have any great affinity for that one in particular, but as Nov said, every time you listen to one of their CD's you run the chance of picking up on a new gem that you hadn't noticed before. 

I think that their albums tend to run together in a good way, one track slides into the next into the next and so on until you find yourself at the end of the album with an over all serene sense of wonder knowing that you enjoyed the experience, but unable to remember the exact details.

It's kind of like a drunken hook up.  (without the unpleasant itching the next morning)

Nice to hear everybody talking about my favourite album, Stardust We Are.  Check my review of it .