So, I finally received the new album from The Flower Kings yesterday, straight from Germany.

I purchased the double red LP and double CD. It’s great buying some new progressive rock in vinyl form again :)

Anyhow, having loved The Flower Kings material for the past few years, I was eager to hear what their new release had to offer. The teaser trailer that was released a few weeks ago sounded extreamly promising indeed!

So, in went CD 1 (just wanted a quick first listen while I worked, hence the CD and not vinyl) and started on the 25 minute long first track. 

Now, in the past you come to expect each Flower King album to have one or two of these long ‘epics’, that’s a sort of trademark, hey that’s prog! But listening to this latest one, I got through the whole track feeling rather underwhelmed. This is not something I usually feel when it comes to the Flower Kings material. Sure it had the trademark highs and lows but it never really built into anything spectacular, no grand finale. I thought the drumming was neither hear nor there to be honest. Maybe I’m being over picky because I’m a drummer myself, but it just didn’t have any power or drive. Just sort of sat there in the background.

Not a great start seeing as this was the ‘epic’. And to honest dear readers, the rest of the remaining tracks did nothing to change this. They are all rather non descript and left me thinking….is that it? 

It’s like someone has taken these guys and watered them down. I know they are capable of producing some stupendous material but yet this doesn’t shine through on this album. After a 5 year gap, I expected a bit better than this.

I’m hoping any future releases are an improvement over this latest offering.

I’m off to listen to one of their better albums - ‘Flower Power’ (hell, with a 56 minute long first track, that is an ‘epic’ that these guys are capable of!)

(Source: konkrete)

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