The Flower Kings, Chapter 9: Paradox Hotel

9) Paradox Hotel (2006)

The world is grooving to a brand new beat, the ground is swaying below our feet...

The fallout of Adam & Eve brought turmoil for The Flower Kings. First Zoltán Csörsz, then Daniel Gildenlöw said goodbye to the band in somewhat less-than-perfectly-cordial circumstances.

The Flower Kings: BrimStoned in Europe

Circus Brimstone Live: BrimStoned in Europe (2005)

2005 was another difficult year for The Flower Kings, and a more diffiult one still for TFK fans. There was no new album, but Roine Stolt did release a solo album: the bizarre, blues-inflicted Wall Street Voodoo, an album that divides fans to this day. Tomas Bodin, too, released an album with blues influences: the very ambitious I AM (both these albums featured one Marcus Liliequist on drums; more on him later). But what of the band?

The Flower Kings, Chapter 8: Adam & Eve

8) Adam & Eve (2004)

There's no man in the mirror, just me… and I hate what I see!

So, I've either kicked off a trend or the time is right for The Flower Kings (probably the latter), because I see more people talking about TFK's back catalog all around the progosphere. That's great! Now that the second chapter of the Kingdom of Colours box set has been announced, the time could not better to examine the album that kicks it off.

The Flower Kings: Meet The Flower Kings

Meet The Flower Kings (2003)

Like the album, the tour promoting Unfold The Future was a highly ambitious affair. The band elected to build the set around three monumentally long tracks: “The Truth Will Set You Free”, “Garden of Dreams” and “Stardust We Are”, each played (almost) in their entirety. Those three alone provide nearly two hours of material, but the band would also play additional songs each night that would switch around from show to show.

The Flower Kings, Chapter 7: Unfold The Future

 7) Unfold The Future (2002)

Now so much wiser, so much more in tune...

After the triumph of Space Revolver, an album that won the band many new fans including yours truly, The Rainmaker was a disappointment to many. Had the band's unforgiving one-album-a-year approach taken its toll? Were The Flower Kings already on their way out?

The Flower Kings, Chapter 6: The Rainmaker

6) The Rainmaker (2001)

The world is a cruel affair if you don't dance to the common beat...

Space Revolver came out in 2000, Unfold the Future two years later. These are my two favourite TFK albums, and The Rainmaker came out right in between. In theory, The Flower Kings were on top of their game.

The Flower Kings, Chapter 5: Space Revolver

5) Space Revolver (2000)

Now, I'm at the peak, never forget what I tell you...

This is the one. My gateway drug into The Flower Kings, my gateway drug into progressive rock as a whole and therefore a difficult album for me to look at objectively. When I was fifteen, it had a profound impact on me and I've never been quite the same since. Here's my account of that story. Now, I am intimately familiar with every note on this album. I think Space Revolver is really good, but then, of course I would think that, right?