Roine Stolt's The Flower King
Manifesto of an Alchemist

Roine, the well known king of the flowers return with a new album, this time under the moniker Roine Stolt’s The Flower King and not his usual The Flower Kings or anything to that effect. It is called Manifesto of an Alchemist and it features many of the guys that usually collaborate with Roine and it wasn’t given the most fantastic of artworks, I am not sure I would like to have it in my collection. But the cover isn’t all, or really anything, what matters is the music and how about that? Does Roine present something that we haven’t heard before? Well, the answer is that he doesn’t and when listening to this album I have wonder why it wasn’t released and The Flower Kings Moniker.

It sounds kind of like an album by The Flower Kings, melodic and progressive rock, a long album with several long tracks, any one familiar with The Flower Kings will find this familiar. The sound is very appealing and I think also more or less what I did expect it to sound like before hearing it. But it is also quite a long album, too long I think. I often wonder why so many progressive musicians feel the need to make such long songs and albums, it works sometimes and progressive songs and albums van be longer without feeling too long, but at neatly seventy minutes playing time I tend to get the feeling that this album goes on a bit too long. The variation isn’t enough despite good performances a relative sense of fantasy and some depth.

This album is probably good enough to appeal to the fans of Roine and his Flower Kings music. It is an album with good songs, strong melodies and pretty good appeal. I like it. But I think that it lacks that little extra that makes a good album great, perhaps it is the missing attention grabbing song. There are some really strong parts of this album, some exciting passages and so on, but it doesn’t really make me sit up and take notice. It is impressive in some perspective but lacks imagination in other perspectives, a good handiwork, a good album, Roine is a dependable musician and creator of music and this is no exception and probably won’t be disappointing to whoever gets it – especially those who enjoy The Flower Kings.

Recommended to those who like what Roine has done before, it may not really be one of the most exciting or impressive albums he has put together but it is quite strong nonetheless. It is a fine album; it has a fair deal to offer to those who aren’t really looking for something a bit fresher or more exciting. I think that Roine has put together another fine album.

HHHHHHH