The Flower Kings – Adam and Eve (2004)

 

  1. Love Supreme   (19:50)
  2. Cosmic Circus   (3:00)
  3. Babylon   (2:41)
  4. A Vampires View   (8:50)
  5. Days Gone By   (1:10)
  6. Adam & Eve   (7:50)
  7. Starlight Man   (3:30)
  8. Timelines   (7:40)
  9. Drivers Seat   (18:22)
  10. The Blade Of Cain   (5:00

The Kings of symphonic rock are back. You may ask, where they ever gone? Well, it depends on your view-point, of course. The band released an album each year, but as kings of symphonic rock they hadn’t done this since “Flower Power”. Each album was excellent, but sometimes a bit too jazzy, a bit too complex for the real sympho lover. It gave the impression that the song was inferior to the technicality, that the skill was more important than the compositions. And now this ‘lack’ has been filled up again.

On ‘Adam & Eve’, the quality of the songs again prevails and they prove it right away with the first track “Love Supreme”. The track clocks about 20 minutes and contains everything a good prog song needs: a fine composition, the right choice of instruments, changes in pace, highly skilled solos and the necessary attention for the right feeling and atmosphere. And this song also has a great Yes (from their heydays) feeling and some recognizable classic themes. Or, to make a long story short, it’s a song to clasp to your heart.

This opener surely is a trend-setter, because the shorter tracks also spread the atmosphere of the early TFK tracks. “Cosmic Circus”, “Babylon” & “Starlight Man” would have fitted perfectly on ‘Stardust We Are’ or ‘Retropolis’.

Of course, there are quite a few surprises, some very pleasant, because, as you can hear in “A Vampires View”, Daniel Gildenlöw, now a full member of TFK, has brought very positive influences to the band. This track combines the symphonic character of TFK with the threatening, more aggressive (read progressive) influences of Gildenlöw. Don’t forget, Pain Of Salvation is known as one of the most progressive bands. Brilliant vocals by Daniel, but who expected anything less?

The piano-playing of Tomas Bodin on “Days Gone By” could be used as a film score for a movie from the thirties. The title of this instrumental track has been very well chosen.

I won’t give any opinion on whether Gildenlöw had an influence on the title track “Adam & Eve” to make it a bit heavier. But it surely bends more to prog metal, although this track contains some Zappaian interventions. So you see they didn’t loose any of their inventiveness.

The intro of “Timelines” completely puts you on the wrong track. After the rather “prog metal with Zappa influences” intro, this song gets a turn to a more typical Flower Kings track. An extremely clever blues (jazz) guitar lifts this song to one of the better tracks of the CD.

The second longest track of the album takes you on a frantic ride through a very varied prog landscape. Together with the opening track this song confirms the known saying that the longest tracks are the best. Somewhere around the 11th minute, the song gets quiet to slowly build up again with a bluesy guitar. The guitar solos during the second part of “Drivers Seat” have a bit of a Hendrix feeling.

However, the best guitar solo has been saved for last. After a built-up from the keyboards, this instrumental “The Blade Of Cain” comes to an apotheosis of sounds with the guitar of Roine Stolt in the leading part. This song invites you immediately to push the start button again and Gildenlöw’s lamentation for “Love Supreme” isn’t the only reason.

Don’t think this album reveals all of its secrets after one listening. As often, this album of TFK has an insert that says: “Look out! The feeling of satisfaction with this product will only be obtained after repetitive use!” But surely this can’t scare you off, being the symphonic and progressive rock fan, on the contrary!