THE FLOWER KING

"The Flower King" is the 3rd full-length solo album by Swedish artist Roine Stolt. The album was released through Foxtrot Records in 1994. It´s the successor to "The Lonely Heartbeat (1989)". Stolt had been a member of Swedish progressive rock act Kaipa in the 70s and appeared on the albums they released in the 1975-1978 period, but he subsequently left Kaipa and formed the Fantasia project in 1979 and released two albums under that monicker before releasing his first solo album "Behind the Walls" in 1985. At the dawn of the 90s fellow countrymen in Landberk and Änglagård began having success with their progressive rock releases, and Stolt found a renewed interest in creating a progressive rock album (the previous solo albums had featured other music styles), and assembled a recording lineup to record the material featured on "The Flower King". As the album proved a huge success Stolt and the key members of the lineup who recorded "The Flower King", formed The Flower Kings band.

The material on the 8 track, 70:35 minutes long album is 70s influenced progressive rock featuring elements from both classic 70s progressive rock like Yes and Genesis, jazz rock/fusion, hard rock, psychadelic rock, and blues. It´s quite the eclectic combination of musical elements but Stolt and his band master all styles with ease and conviction. Most lead vocals are performed by Stolt, who has a pleasant laid back vocal style, but Hasse Fröberg (who would become a permanent member of The Flower Kings) is introduced on the opening title track and on the closing track "Scanning the Greenhouse", and helps add some vocal variation to the album, as he has a very different voice and vocal style to Stolt. While the vocals are of course an important part of the music, the material is actually predominantly instrumental or at least long sections of the tracks feature only instrumental playing and no vocals. Epic keyboards, blistering guitar solos, and varied rhythm work.

The album opens strong with the title track, the dark "Dissonata", and the jazz/fusion influenced "The Magic Circus of Zeb". The latter features a nice Frank Zappa influence in the way the melodies are composed and the with the use of marimba. The 20:54 minutes long multi-suite "Humanizzimo" also deserves to be mentioned as one of the highlights of the album. It´s a diverse track featuring a lot of different sections and musical styles. Intriguing and adventurous throughout, and featuring some of the most beautiful vocal melodies and lyrics Stolt has ever produced.

"The Flower King" features a detailed, clear, and organic sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly. Stolt is credited as producer of the album, so not only has he composed all material on the album, and performs both vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards and some percussion, he is also a skilled technician and producer. Upon conclusion "The Flower King" is a strong release by Roine Stolt, and although it´s not officially the debut album by The Flower Kings, it´s often mentioned as part of The Flower Kings discography and for fans of the band this is of course a mandatory listen. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.