Happy New Year all!
Time for the annual recap thread to go over what transpired in the World of Adventures and speculate on what is ahead in 2018.
Here are the Flower Kings related releases that we saw in 2017 in the order they arrived to my mailbox:
January
Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day
Perhaps the best PoS album ever. I really don't like to use the phrase 'return to form'. Although I didn't really care for the Road Salt albums I don't begrudge Daniel doing whatever his muse tells him. I just think he should have released them under a different project name or as solo albums and kept the Pain of Salvation name for his progressive metal material. Flower Kings members do this all the time and release all kinds of side projects when they want to explore different musical paths. Releasing those as PoS albums I think created some unnecessary confusion. But back to the new release. It is fantastic. "On a Tuesday", "Meaningless", "Full Throttle Tribe", "Reasons", and the final epic "The Passing Light of Day" are particular favorites but the whole album flows well and I usually listened to it start to end never skipping a track. Concept deals with his sickness and truthfully near death experience with a bizarre flesh eating bacteria which laid him up in the hospital unable to move or turn his body for over a month. The album channels that intensity of feeling with anger, hope, sadness, helplessness, fear, pain and love into a modern lyrical and musical masterpiece. The new band that makes up PoS and the addition of Ragnar Zolberg have really augmented the band. So happy I saw this live as well, never expected them to come anywhere near me but they did. Little did I know I would be seeing one of the last shows with Ragnar as yet again lineup changes hit the band with Ragnar out and Johan back in. The album was really the result of Daniel and Ragnar writing and creating it together so this may foretell another change of sound on the next album.
May
Nad Sylvan - The Bride Said No
Nad Sylvan assembles an all star group for his latest solo offering. Roine guesting again on one track. And I think with this one he really now has a style and sound that is all his own. It was probably inevitable that this would mean a drift away from the sounds explored on Unifaun, Agents and The Widow. A little more of a slick sound here - The highlight for me is "What Have you Done" - the back to back solos by Steve Hackett & Gutrie Govan are perfectly composed and incredibly majestic. Also really like the bonus track "Black Sheep"
July
The Tangent - The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery
Andy Tillison follows up the great Spark in the Aether album with a more somber offering on weighty issues like refugees, nationalism, tabloid press, anti-immigrant mentality, animal conservation and poaching, and also a very touching and personal song about a friendship breaking up. Closer in spirit to Sacre than to Aether but still like all Tangent albums it has its own unique flavor to it. The addition of Marie Eve de Gaultier adds a female voice for the first time. The album is a great listen that continues to reveal more with repeat visits - a blend of styles throwing in Jazz Fusion, Punk, electronica and of course great symphonic Prog rock. I really appreciated the thought and work that went into the thought provoking lyrics - Maybe the more controversial aspect of the album is that Andy decided to handle the drums himself. The Tangent has always had a stellar and pretty high profile drummer (Csörsz, Salazar, Burgess, Rickwood, Harrison, Ågren) - so the move was sort of surprising. I don't really know how it was done, I think he must have used a combination of real drums, electronic drums and perhaps some keyboard triggered or programmed drums. The technology has come a long way, to be clear it doesn't sound like ABWH, but there are parts it is noticeable and for me this detracted somewhat giving parts of some songs a sort of demo type feel. But that is just in some places and my only quibble.
September
HFMC - No Place Like Home - Live DVD and 2 CD set.
Hasse Fröberg and Musical Companion - live dvd from 2016 concert. Performing mostly HFMC songs plus TFK songs "Life Will Kill You" and "Stardust We Are" part 3 (no "Magic Pie" unfortunately - maybe next time) The venue they played in looks cool and seems like an intimate show among friends. You can actually see Tomas Bodin and Michael Stolt among the crowd and they are briefly interviewed in the bonus section. Credit to the editor who mostly avoids the constant quick cutting between angles every 1-2 seconds that plagues so many live dvd's nowadays (Transatlantic I'm looking at you) this one holds shots a little longer, although I wouldn't mind if they did even more but this is an improvement. Fun show - HFMC is definitely a different animal from TFK and not always so proggy but moves quite easily between songs that are quality pure R&R, heavy metal, progressive metal, and some more folky and ballad type songs - quite an interesting mix. The song "Pages" deserves special mention sounding like a long lost 70's classic. "The Warmth of the Evening" is another standout - I'll probably listen to the cd's more often than I'll watch the concert dvd - sound mix is very good - not too raw but certainly has a great live feel.
September
Kaipa (HL) - Children of the Sounds
The other version of Kaipa returns with original member Hans Lundin, joined with his now usual all-star lineup of Jonas, Morgan Ågren, Per Nilsson, Patrik Lundström and Aleena. It is very much in the vain of the 4 other Kaipa HL albums we have had post Stolt. The issue for me was the CD is completely brickwalled and a total ear destroyer. Some good music and of course excellent musicianship but after two listens where I had to turn the volume way way down to contend with it I threw in the towel. When I want a modern Kaipa fix I'll reach for Keyholder, Notes from the Past and a few songs from Mindrevolutions instead. It would be interesting if someone who had never heard Kaipa HL would listen to the albums in reverse chronological order, would they think the first 3 they heard were the best and become a little burned out on the sound by the time they got to Notes? No, I still think those first 3 have the strongest and best melodies and I guess I prefer Stolt's more soulful playing over Per's rather busy/shredding style. If they do another one I think it would help to have Jonas handle the production and mixing instead of Hans, change the sound up a little.
October
Kaipa (DC) - Live
Document of the Then & Now tour- reuniting 3/4 of the classic lineup (minus Lundin) with the addition of Lalle Larsson on keys filling in for Max Lorentz who was injured when he was attacked on stage. Includes classics like "Skenet Bedrar", "Sist På Plan", "Korståg", "Total Förvirring". Being only a single disc there will be some of your favorites left off here and there is a lot more "Then" than "Now" on the cd. Only one song from the new album. I would have liked to hear live versions of "När Jag Var En Pojk", "Tonerna", and "Dårskapens Monotoni", but maybe they didn't want to do those without Max in the lineup. Anyway it is great to have this live release and I thank them for releasing it as I'll probably never get a chance to see them in person.
November
The Flower Kings - Unfold the Future (triple vinyl and CD 2017 remix/remaster)
Always loved the artwork to this one so was happy to have the vinyl and large format. Was a little leery of the 'remix' portion of this - 3 songs getting pretty radically redone. (Truth, Black and White, and Devil's Playground) -the last time Stolt did remixes of early songs we got The Road Back Home and in nearly every case I preferred the original recording to the remix. I've only had a few listens to this one but so far the same holds true here. It should be noted that 3 other songs on this version are also remixes (Monkey Business, Vox Humana and Grand Old World) -as Stolt chose to use the versions on The Road Back Home as the starting point instead of the originals. The last two in particular have significant changes. The intro of "Grand Old World" is gone (the part that reprises the Truth theme in a different key) That may have made sense on the compilation album but not here where it is a double album that should reprise themes from earlier to make it cohesive. Why Roine made some of these changes I'll never understand. Lopping off 5 minutes from "Devil's Playground" including that beautiful interlude that also reprises parts of Truth! And also changing the opening and adding in that weird spoken voice thing "This is how you raise the Cain" before going into the monster riff. WTH! And in "Black & White" he didn't take the opportunity to remove that silly/questionable drop "Mama Mia that's a spicy meatball" instead it sounds even louder. The remastered portions fair much better. I'll need more time to listen - one of favorites "Genie in a Bottle" sounded better than ever but it seemed like in "Silent Inferno" Roine's guitar solo (maybe his best ever) seems strangely muffled and overpowered by the other instruments. But this is mostly in car listening so need to listen closer.
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