The Flower Kings is a Swedish progressive rock band formed in 1993 by guitarist Royne Stolt as an accompanying solo album The Flower King . For nineteen years, they have released about 26 hours of music.
| The flower kings | |
|---|---|
| Flower kings | |
 | |
| basic information | |
| Genres | progressive rock art rock symphonic rock |
| Years | 1993 — present |
| A country |  Sweden |
| Labels | Century Media , Inside Out , Foxtrot Records |
| Composition | Royne Stolt Hasse fröberg Tomas bodin Jonas reingold Hasse bruniusson Erik Hammarstöm |
| Former the participants | Jamie salazar Michael stolt Marcus liliequist Daniel Gildenlöw Zoltan csörsz |
| flowerkings.se | |
The vast majority of the group's works were written by Royne Stolt. Almost all of the remaining works were written by Thomas Bodin . In general, The Flower Kings style can be described as a symphonic art rock, in many cases similar to the early Genesis and Yes . The texts of the group are almost everywhere equally positive and affirm such values as love , peace and spirituality .
In 1999, The Flower Kings in Flower Power released one of the longest tracks of progressive rock - an almost 60-minute piece of Garden of Dreams , consisting of 18 parts.
The group has a marked craving for epic works. As a rule, almost every album contains at least one epic ( Retropolis and Back tn the World of Adventures can be considered exceptions).
Discography
Studio Albums
- The Flower King ( 1994 ) (de jure - Royne Stolt's solo album)
- Back in the World of Adventures ( 1995 )
- Retropolis ( 1996 )
- Stardust We Are ( 1997 ) (Double)
- Flower Power ( 1999 ) (double)
- Space Revolver ( 2000 ) (Japanese double)
- The Rainmaker ( 2001 ) (limited edition double)
- Unfold the Future ( 2002 ) (double)
- Adam & Eve ( 2004 )
- Paradox Hotel ( 2006 ) (double)
- The Sum Of No Evil ( 2007 )
- Banks Of Eden ( 2012 )
- Desolation Rose ( 2013 )
Live Albums
- Alive on Planet Earth ( 2000 ) (double CD ))
- Meet the Flower Kings ( 2003 ) (double CD and DVD , go split or together)
- Instant Delivery ( 2006 ) (dual DVD concert, limited editions include dual CD and booklet )
Official Bootlegs
- Édition limitée Québec ( 1998 ) (unreleased and live songs)
- The Rainmaker Tour 2001 (available for download from the site, non-profit publication)
- Live in New York - Official Bootleg ( 2002 )
- BetchaWannaDanceStoopid !!! ( 2004 )
Fan Club Albums
- Fan Club 2000 ( 2000 )
- Fan Club 2002 ( 2002 )
- Fan Club 2004 ( 2004 )
- Fan Club 2005 / Harvest ( 2005 )
Collections
- Scanning the Greenhouse ( 1998 )
- The Road Back Home ( 2007 )
Composition
The band, originally formed for concert accompaniment, consisted of Royne Stolt (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards), Jaime Salazar (drums) and Hasse Froberg (vocals). Later, Royne Stolta's younger brother Michael (bass) and Thomas Bodin (keyboards) joined The Flower Kings itself. Michael Stolt left the band in 2000, right after the release of Flower Power , Jaime Salazar in 2001, after the release of The Rainmaker .
They were replaced by Jonas Reinhold (bass) and Hungarian Zoltan Chors (drums). The next change in composition occurred after the release of the album Adam & Eve in 2004. Chors leaves the group and drummer Marcus Lillequist comes for a short while.
Already in 2007, Lillequist left the group, and Chors took part in the studio recording of The Sum of No Evil . However, this was limited to this. Performing on a tour in support of an album with King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto , Flower Kings found a new drummer. They became Eric Hammarstrom. With his participation, a concert was given in Moscow in 2008.
The 2012 album Banks of Eden was recorded with the participation of a new drummer from Germany - Felix Lermann.
In November 2018, the new album Manifesto of Alchemist was released under the guise of Roine Stolt's the Flower King and thus became Royne Stolt's virtually solo album. Thomas Bodin took part in the recording of the disc.
In August 2018, Roine Stolt introduced a new band called Roine Stolt and Friends Play The Flower Kings. The group included Stolt, Fröberg and Reinhold with new keyboardist Zach Kamins and new drummer Mirko DeMayo. Stolt stated that he had finished the band and would like to tour as a solo artist, like Roger Waters or Stephen Wilson . Thomas Bodin was not invited to the new group and publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with this fact. The new line-up toured with Spock's Beard in November – December 2018 and continued to perform in 2019, this time under the name The Flower Kings Revisited. In July 2019, the word “Revisited” was removed from the name of the group, and it became clear that now this is the new composition of The Flower Kings.
Current squad
- Royne Stolt - guitar, vocals, keyboards, bass (since 1994)
- Hasse Fröberg - vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar (c 1994)
- Jonas Reinhold - bass (since 1999)
- Zach Kamins - keyboards (since 2019)
- Mirco DeMaillot - Percussion (since 2019)
Former members
- Jaime Salazar - drums (1994–2001)
- Michael Stolt - bass guitar (1994–1999)
- Zoltan Chors - drums (2001–2005, 2007)
- Daniel Gildenlev - vocals, guitar, keyboards (2002–2004)
- Marcus Lillequist - drums (2005–2006)
- Eric Hammarstrom - drums (2008)
- Ola Heden - vocals, keyboards, guitar (2008)
- Felix Lermann - drums (2012–2019)
- Thomas Bodin - keyboards (1994–2019)
Guest musicians
- Hasse Brunusson - percussion (since 1995)
- Ulf Wallander - saxophone (since 1995)
- Matt Mastelotto - Percussion (2007)
Timeline
See also
Karmakanic