The Flower Kings
Love
Inside Out Music
Release Date: May 2, 2025
Sweden’s The Flower Kings are about to release their seventeenth album
Swedish prog outfit The Flower Kings have averaged a studio album every 18 months over the last 30 years, and their latest called Love was released earlier this month.
“Progressive rock still exists?” you may ask. “Wasn’t it officially declared dead in 1981 when Yes broke up and Genesis released Abacab?”
Sure, bands like King Crimson, It Bites and Marillion kept it alive throughout the next decade, but it no longer filled up arenas and stadiums as it had in the 1970s.
And then it was even more dead by 1991 when grunge hit.
In reality, nothing in music actually dies apart from the music industry’s will to market an artist or genre it no longer sees as profitable. Progressive rock began in the 1960s and it is still alive and well. But certainly some bands do better than others, for a whole score of reasons, like in any creative venture.
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One of the kings of modern prog are Dream Theater, and their drummer Mike Portnoy was recently quoted saying how he feels a lot of prog rock bands “don’t sell as many records because maybe they haven’t tapped into the metal side.”
Dream Theater has indeed seen a lot more success than The Flower Kings. But it’s pretty bold of Portnoy to openly make this declaration considering how many bands he’s played in that aren’t nearly as successful as Dream Theater and didn’t tap into their metal side, one of which was with none other than The Flower Kings’ vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Roine Stolt. They were called Transatlantic, a kind of Traveling Wilburys of prog — a great band.
But he’s still not wrong. Dream Theater created something new and were rewarded mightily for it, and now there is a plethora of subgenres of progressive metal largely because of them and their success.
But what is success in 2025, anyway? Plenty would argue it’s being able to make a living doing what you love, which is precisely what The Flower Kings have done. And they’ve done it in a way that any sane person would’ve said was impossible once ex-members of prog bands became Asia and had a huge hit with “Heat of the Moment.”
“Progressive” music tends to imply some combination of long songs, esoteric subject matter, odd time signatures and lots of solos. But the actual root of the word “progressive” — progress — means to tread new ground.
12-string guitars, analog synths, and jazzy and often beautiful instrumental passages are abundant on Love. This may seem progressive if you’ve never heard the albums released by King Crimson and Yes recorded fifty years earlier. The Pink Floyd and Genesis influences are obvious too (“Kaiser Raiser” is no doubt a musical nod to “The Cinema Show” by the latter, and not just because it’s mostly in 7/8 time).
This album is crafted and executed with competence and care, but it’s not reinventing the wheel. And I’m sure The Flower Kings aren’t under such illusions either, considering the point they’re at in their career with a dedicated fan base that loves what they do.
“If we could bury hate, there’s nothing greater than the love you save.”
The lyrics aren’t exactly progressive either.
But then something starts to turn about two-thirds the way through. The accordion in “The Promise” is a welcome change of timbre and pace. And from here onward the compositions are much stronger.
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The only place where they’re really lacking here is in strong vocal melodies — those payoffs in this genre of music that so often make for repeated listens, which The Flower Kings have demonstrated on past albums like Paradox Hotel and Banks of Eden — although “Walls of Shame” and “Considerations” come mighty close.
Nobody in their right mind could possibly call any of this bad, because the musicianship is clearly excellent throughout. But it’s unlikely to convert the uninitiated to their flock.
If you want to hear this band at their best, track down 1999’s Flower Power or any number of their excellent live albums. But this one still isn’t a bad place to start.
For Fans Of: Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant
Track Listing:
1. We Claim the Moon
2. The Elder
3. How Can You Leave Us Now!?
4. World Spinning
5. Burning Both Edges
6. The Rubble
7. Kaiser Razor
8. The Phoenix
9. The Promise
10. Love Is
11. Walls of Shame
12. Considerations
