The Flower Kings – Waiting For Miracles
Album Review By David Kerber
The Flower Kings are back! Six years after their last studio work Desolation rose and just in time for the 25th anniversary of the band, the Prog Band around exceptional guitarist Roine Stolt returns with a double album. Although it “only” has a length of 84 minutes, with one song less it would be a simple album, but still, only a Prog band can afford to release such long albums.
After a two-minute intro with piano and guitar, the first of a total of 12 songs starts. In addition there is an interlude and an outro, both on the second CD.
“Black Flag” is a song in best Floyd manner. Worn by guitar, keyboard and vocals with a great instrumental part in the middle and a sensitive guitar solo at the end.
The title song reminds me in the beginning part of Runrig, but soon drifts off into a “classic” tinkering prog song a la King Crimson or Yes.
With which we would have already determined the target audience of the album: Fans of 70s Prog with a tendency to elegiac, extended solos. Everyone else will not be able to win much from this album in the long run, as most songs have the same structure. An exception is the song “Ascending to the stars” which has more soundtrack character and consists mainly of orchestral parts. The composition is supported by guitar and choir, so that it could well have come from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Also “The crowning of greed” stands out by good melody, the abandonment of tinkering and a certain sublimity.
For the most part much attention is given to instrumental parts, so that relatively sparsely vocals occur, but when they are mostly polyphonic. For genre fans and other open-minded music lovers, the album is absolutely recommended, even if it does not belong to the category must buy. In any case, you have to take time for the album (not just because of the length) and hear it several times to make it work to its full potential. Not for impatient listeners.
The Flower Kings – Black flag: https://youtu.be/LoDfg9dS7LI
Lineup:
Roine Stolt – Lead Guitar & Lead Vocals
Hasse Fröberg – Lead & Backing Vocals
Zach Kamins – Keyboards, Guitar
Jonas Reingold – Bass
Mirko DeMaio – Drums, Percussion
Label: InsideOut Music
Out: November 08th, 2019
Track list:
Disc 1 (63:28)
- House Of Cards
- Black Flag
- Miracles For America
- Vertigo
- The Bridge
- Ascending To The Stars
- Wicked Old Symphony
- The Rebel Circus
- Sleep With The Enemy
- The Crowning Of Greed
Disc 2 (21:28)
- House Of Cards Reprise
- Spirals
- Steampunk
- We Were Always Here
- Busking At Brobank
Rating : 7.5/10
MHF Magazine/David Kerber
