Review - -Desolation Rose by the Flower Kings

The new opus from the flower kings, getting back to their traditional every two years album, is not a double though but with bonus disc.

After the nice Bank of Eden, the new opus, called Desolation Rose is a direct follow up thematically wise. Not really a concept album, the disc is very tightly bound though from the political thematic and the lyrics and musical themes that run through it.

Strangely the album is less than a hour long and with only one epic… and a less than 20 minutes one to boot !

Opening, Tower One is a very nice song, typical of the Flower kings with great vocals lines.

The epic is a very nice and tight piece with a great finale.

After that strangely, the remaining songs kinda seems like leftovers exploring the theme of the disc. Short stuff with interconnecting lyrics and musical themes, giving a small sense of conceptual album and a strong unity and coherence also.

Strangely the bonus disc features even much shorter songs and instrumentals. And there are very strange and interesting songs there. Either catchy and odd or just plainly sorrowful gentle guitar weepings definitely worth getting if you’re buying the album.

So a nice epic and a cool bonus disc (cooler than most bonus disc we usually get), good disc for discovering but definitely not the best album out there by the Swedish prog masters.