The Rainmaker

After TransAtlantic, it seems to me logical to talk about Swedish guys of The Flower Kings and their sixth brand new studio album entitled The Rainmaker. The difficulty of categorising the music style of The Flower Kings comes from the variety of sound offered. It's very interesting for me to listen to Roine Stolt (guitars and vocals) talking about his music. "It's not important to me what you call our music. If people say it's prog rock, then that's ok. If they call it heavy rock, that's okay too." This state of mind proves that Roine is a real open-minded musician and he doesn't agree to put a label on his own music. This album is built around three tracks like Road To Sanctuary, City Of Angels and Last Minute On Earth. Theses very long songs, about more 12 minutes each, form the skeleton of the album. "We love building on our ideas and adding long improvisations" explains Stolt. That's for me the best and easier explanation about what musical approach they have and how they compose. During the listening of this album, it reminds me the early Genesis period (Nurcery Crymes, Foxtrot), a little bit Jazz and the actual heavy sound of some metal bands! The perfect production gives the emphasis to the important moments. I was seduced by the atmosphere that was coming out of the whole album. You'll receive a great lesson of prog rock like a smash in your face. Prog Rock is so special that they don't play for money but only for pleasure and that makes all the difference. Their own style won't bore you and that was the better choice in prog rock for last year. Sorry, I'm a little bit too late for reviewing CD released on September 2001! After "In Metal We Trust", "Rock Will Never Die", the ending word could be "Prog Rock Is Timeless"!