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Unfold the Future by The Flower Kings, released in 2002
The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band formed in 1994 by guitarist Roine Stolt, which originated from Stolt's solo project, The Flower King from 1994 and evolved into a band that has produced numerous albums in the symphonic rock style, with many rhythm changes and polyrhythms, great bass lines, beautiful vocal harmonies with generally long tracks and beautiful prog suites.
Here in the 2022 reissue (3xLP+2xCD) featuring Daniel Gildenlöw, founder and leader of Pain of Salvation. Also great is the contribution on bass by Jonas Reingold, whom we recently discussed for his beautiful 2025 album Transmutation by Karmakanic
The album is a prog marathon, over 140 minutes for sixteen tracks, including tracks of about 31, 14, and 25 minutes.
An excellent album that first and foremost showcases the band's great technical abilities in progressive rock, jazz fusion, and symphonic rock, and takes all the time it needs to do so,
The 70s prog tradition is also present here and stands out in two tracks, ‘The Truth Can Set You Free’ and ‘Devils Playground’, which together account for fifty minutes. The additional component is the “metal” one introduced by Gildenlow with his artistic sensibility.
Unfold the Future is an album with many variations, hard rock, jazz, frenetic jams, strong melodies... eclectic. Epic is perhaps the exact definition. For some, this means “prolix” but to tell the truth, when I put on a record I do it based on the time available and if I have the time it can last for hours, even better. Obviously, with such long tracks it's hard to remember many moments, which is why I don't consider it excellent, but the listening experience is exciting and full of “wow” moments that make it a beautiful album!!!
Note: All links to the musicians' works are in the TAGS under the article title or on the "Artists" page
Tracklist
1. The Truth Will Set You Free (31:02) :
- i. Lonely Road
- ii. Primal Instincts
- iii. From the Source
- iv. Uphill
- v. The Stars, the Sun, the Moon
2. Monkey Business (4:24)
3. Black and White (7:40)
4. Christianopel (8:17)
5. Silent Inferno (14:22)
6. The Navigator (3:39)
7. Vox Humana (4:45)
8. Genie in a Bottle (8:10)
9. Fast Lane (6:34)
10. Grand Old World (5:26)
11. Soul Vortex (4:38)
12. Rollin' the Dice (5:00)
13. The Devil's Danceschool (5:08)
14. Man Overboard (3:45)
15. Solitary Shell (2:51)
16. Devil's Playground (25:27)
Duration 141:08
LineUp
- Roine Stolt - guitar, vocals, keyboards
- Jonas Reingold - bass
- Zoltan Csörsz - drums
- Hasse Bruniusson - orchestral percussion
- Tomas Bodin - piano, keyboards
- Hasse Fröberg - vocals
With:
- Daniel Gildenlöw - vocals (lead 9, 12, 16)
- Ulf Wallander - soprano and tenor saxophone
- Anders Bergcrantz - trumpet
