With Flowerpower, The Flower Kings release yet another fantastic symphonic progressive rock record. This is truly one of the highlights of the year and Roine Stolt, Tomas Bodin, Hasse Fröberg, Micheal Stolt and Jaime Salazar gives the listener a great experience.

This double album is filled with music; over 130 minutes of varied inventive music. Roine Stolt and his band create something that is hard to categorize, but it's sure as hell progressive. This is a remarkable release. The first song is over an hour long and takes you the Garden of Dreams, which also is the title of the song.

If you haven't heard of Flower Kings this is a must buy, trust me, you will be swept away, just as I was.

That was then- When I was a young progressive rock lover, Kaipa was one of the first bands I started listen to. Kaipa was one of the best bands from Sweden, and their first three albums are still among the best from Sweden, although it has gone almost 25 years since their first album "Kaipa" (1975). The guitarist in Kaipa was of course, Roine Stolt.

Roine's first sign of life after Kaipa was a solo album called "Fantasia" back in 1980. The drummer on that album was Hasse Bruniusson who later would come to play in The Flower Kings. Roine Stolt has since then released other solo projects with his band called Stolt. They released two albums, "Behind the Walls" in 1985 and "The Lonely Heartbeat" in 1989. Stolt also had another Flower King musician in the line-up: Tomas Bodin who played keyboards.

I was also familiar with Roine Stolt and Hasse Bruniusson's work with Triangulus. Triangulus made a very good album called "Reliques" in 1988. Roine Stolt had also played a big part on Hasse Bruniusson's solo album "Mannaminne" in 1983. So when Roine Stolt released his solo album "The Flower King" in 1994, it was obvious for me to buy it.

-but this is now: Roine Stolt's solo album "The Flower King" in 1994 was a fresh breath of air. It was simply the best he had done since Kaipa, and a milestone in Swedish progressive rock. The album's title became the name for a new band called The Flower Kings, who would come to be one of the leading names in Progressive rock, both in Sweden and in the whole world. The band and the band members have since then released albums in a faster tempo than any other bands I know about. "Workaholics" would be a proper name for them. And if I tell you that every album contains high-quality progressive rock, that two of the albums are double-CDs, and that none of the albums would get a lower rating than 4 out of 5, then you can imagine that they have to be musical geniuses.

The new album "Flower Power": Then what about the new double-album, does it live up to the expectations? I have to say YES! The Flower Kings have made it again. Disc 1 contains a one hour long epic masterpiece called "Garden Of Dreams". It's divided into 18 shorter tracks but has got a constant flow in the music.

If you've never heard The Flower Kings before I can tell you that they are playing 70's influenced symphonic progressive rock with some jazz influences here and there. The music is often instrumental, or lyrical with long instrumental passages and many mood and tempo changes. Their music is a mix between Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Yes.

All of the musicians in Flower Kings are very skilled. Roine Stolt is one of the top guitarists in the whole progressive world, and maybe THE best from Sweden. Roine has got a very unique sound and way of playing. Tomas Bodin is a master on the keyboards. Tomas Bodin often use many different keyboard instruments such as analogue synthesisers, Church Organ, Grand Piano, Hammond, Mellotron and Wurlitzer piano. Hasse Bruniusson is a living legend as he was a member of Samla Mammas Manna, which was one of the leading Swedish progressive bands back in the 70's. The drummer Jaime Salazar is a rock behind his drums. He can play both tight and static, and in the next second get loose on the drums like a madman.

One thing I like with The Flower Kings is their positive lyrics. While many bands only see the bad things in life, like war, the pollution of the air etc., The Flower Kings write about love, peace and understanding. I'm not saying that you should neglect all the bad things in the world, I only believe that if the mankind had the same way of seeing things as The Flower Kings, there wouldn't be any problems. In some ways their messages are almost religious.

Another one of The Flower Kings trademarks is the strong melodies. The highlights are "The Final Deal", "Astral Dog", the eleven minute long "Deaf, Numb And Blind" and "Painter". The weakest tracks are "Stupid Girl" and "Psycedelic Postcard".

Summary: I give this album a four star rating (out of 5). This is because I have judged it compared to the other Flower Kings releases, and this album isn't as good as the previous "Stardust We Are" from 1997, but almost. Else I would've given it a five star rating. I advice you to buy this double CD as well as all the other The Flower Kings releases. Good stuff all of them! An excellent album from one of Sweden's premier bands that is highly recommended!