Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Nov wrote: Nov wrote: infandous wrote: Well Roland, I'm going to blow your assumption I'm afraid.  I generally dislike Neo......a lot.  IQ is probably the only exception, but even with them I find that the more recent albums songs all run together and leave no impression on me after they are done (though they are pleasant enough while I'm listening).  I don't care for Frost* at all, and even less for Sylan (though I've only heard one album by each, the first Frost* and the Posthumous Silence from Sylvan).  I like some of the Fish ear Marillion stuff as well, and Pallas is tolerable to me (but much like IQ, the songs all run together and I can't recall anything about them when they are over).  I have never heard anything I liked from Pendragon, Arena, Jadis, etc. (can't think of all the neo I've heard at the moment.........but it's a lot, because it always seemed like something I should like in theory, but in reality I just don't). This is pretty much how I feel as well to be honest. I was there at the start in the early 80s with bands such as Marillion, IQ (The Lens), Twelfth Night, Pendragon, Pallas, etc, etc. I saw most of these bands and started collecting the albums and was on their mailing lists. I mean, it's great that these bands kept the prog flag flying during that period but by the mid-80s I realised that none of the music was as good as the early 70s stuff and I was just trying to experience something that I had been too young for in the early 70s. Then when the (so-called) 3rd wave came along with bands such as Anglagard, Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings, etc, I realised what had been missing from the neo bands and that is -  superlative musicianship. That feeling that these bands were absolutely born to play this kind of music rather than having to over-stretch themselves which is the feeling I get from most of the "neo" bands. The Flower Kings just sound like it's effortless for them and the music sounds so much more convincing for that. It's very hard to describe but I know what I'm hearing. I've tried some of the later neo bands such as Sylvan and some of the Polish bands but I just get the same feeling from them as I get from the 80s bands.   Just my personal opinion of course.

^I'm afraid he's like that in MANY of his reviews, including all TFK's catalogue as we all here stated.

He may have done 2700+ reviews, but I wonder how many of those are really good content-wise, and if they have helped anyone...

Sum Of No Evil wasn't very good.


Unfold the Future is amazing!

I was just kicking around, figured I'd pop in

Truth was pretty god, but I also have a thing for Black And White, off the first disc anyways. For me the second disc is where it's at.

Fast Lane, Rollin' The Dice, Devil's Danceschool (love Jonas's bass work in this one), Man Overboard, Devil's Playground... all awesome.

King By-Tor wrote: Truth was pretty god, but I also have a thing for Black And White, off the first disc anyways. For me the second disc is where it's at. Fast Lane, Rollin' The Dice, Devil's Danceschool (love Jonas's bass work in this one), Man Overboard, Devil's Playground... all awesome.

Eh, I'm with Mike on this one, if I had to choose one disc I'd go with Disc 2 mostly for "The Devil's Danceschool" and "The Devli's Playground"

Ok, I'm back, a little groogy after the progfest, I'll be writing more extensive reviews as the day progresses, but here's the quick notes of the bands I saw:

Singularity - 2.5 stars, their sound wasn't great and they missed quote a few notes vocally and musically, songs were great though.
Phideaux - 5 stars, best all around show, very professional, sounded amazing
It Bites - 4 stars, sounded very good, though the vocals were muddled, had the sound been better, they'd have gotten 5
IQ - 4.5 Stars - Similar situation to It Bites, Peter Nichols was a little buried in the mix which was a shame. 
Glass Hammer - 3.5 stars, they were missing one of their lead singers but managed to pull off a pretty good set regardless, good sound mix for them.
Crack the Sky - 4 stars, similar to the last two bands on Saturday, the sound mix was borderline awful.  Couldn't hear half of their lyrics, still, the rocked
King's X - 4 stars, like many of the other bands, the vocals were undermixed, espicially Ty Tabor and Jerry Gaskill, on the bright side, they rocked above and beyond the sound mix and would have gotten five stars if they had played a longer set.  I initially gave that one five stars, then I realized, hey, they were a headliner, I didn't time the set but we were out of there considerably earlier than IQ the previous night.  My gut says that they only played a ninty minute set at most.  They're peobably just rehearsing their set for when they open for Porcupine Tree this fall, but darn it, I wanted more.  I don't think they did anything off of Ogretones. 

One note of interest, there were some people that left before and one or two during King's X.  My wife and I slid into the first row after about the third song and kept sliding over.  By about half way through their set, we were front and almost center, directly in front of Ty Tabor.  Interestingly enough, we looked down the front row and John Jowitt had rushed the stage from the other side and ended up about five seats away from us, right in front of Dug Pinnick.

Second note, Howard Levy, the promoter, is a great sales man.  Because of his pitch, my wife now agrees with me that we should go see "Agents of Mercy" and "Karmakanic" in October.  Go Howard!


Edited by Roland113 - August 10 2009 at 12:47

King By-Tor wrote: Truth was pretty god, but I also have a thing for Black And White, off the first disc anyways. For me the second disc is where it's at. Fast Lane, Rollin' The Dice, Devil's Danceschool (love Jonas's bass work in this one), Man Overboard, Devil's Playground... all awesome.

I love both discs but I prefer the first by a small margin. The Truth is what does it for me.

I have just started listening to them. So far I only have The Sum of no Evil and Unfold the Future and I really like it, as soon as I get the chance I'm gonna get more from them.