The Flower Kings

Infobox musical artist |
Name = The Flower Kings


Img_capt = Roine Stolt and Tomas Bodin in 2004.
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Landscape = yes
Background = group_or_band
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Origin = Sweden
Genre = Progressive rock
Years_active = 1994-present
Label = Century Media, InsideOut Music
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.flowerkings.se flowerkings.se]
Current_members = Tomas Bodin Hasse Bruniusson Hasse Fröberg Erik Hammarström Ola Heden Jonas Reingold Roine Stolt
Past_members = Zoltan Csörsz Daniel Gildenlöw Marcus Liliequist Jaime Salazar Michael Stolt

The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band. Formed in 1994 by veteran guitarist Roine Stolt as a touring band to support his solo album "The Flower King", the band stayed together after the tour and have gone on to become one of the most prolific studio recording units in rock music of their era. In ten years they have released nearly 18 hours of music.

The Flower Kings have seen frequent personnel changes. The original line-up for Stolt's solo album consisted of Stolt (vocals, electric guitar, bass, keyboards), Jaime Salazar (drums), and Hasse Fröberg (vocals). When the full band was formed, they added Michael Stolt (bass) and Tomas Bodin (keyboards). Michael Stolt and Salazar have both left the band since its formation, replaced by Jonas Reingold (bass) and Zoltan Csörsz (drums). Other contributors have included Hasse Bruniusson (percussion), Ulf Wallander (saxophone) and Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation (vocals, guitar, keyboards and percussion). Zoltan Csörsz has recently been replaced by new drummer Marcus Liliequist. Daniel Gildenlöw recently left because of personal issues. According to a Myspace blog posted by Roine Stolt on March 17, 2008 The Flower Kings have a new permanent drummer Erik Hammarström. News published in their website on July 29, 2008 state that the band has now a sixth fulltime member, the newcomer Ola Heden, who will play guitar and keyboards, as well as having vocal duties.

Roine Stolt has written the vast majority of the material the band has recorded, with Bodin contributing most of the rest. The music is perhaps best described as "symphonic," bearing a strong resemblance in many instances to that of Yes, and yet there are also hints of strong influence from the jazz fusion genre. The band's lyrics are almost uniformly positive and uplifting, affirming such values as love, peace, and spirituality.

Their 1999 album "Flower Power" contains one of the longest progressive rock tracks ever recorded, the eighteen-section, nearly 60-minute "Garden of Dreams."

Roine Stolt recorded two albums with supergroup Transatlantic, with members of Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, and Marillion, in 2000 and 2001.

In June 2007 they released "The Road Back Home", a compilation of remixed songs from 1994 to 2006, plus "Little Deceiver" (a previously unreleased track) and the full version of their cover of Genesis' "The Cinema Show." [http://www.flowerkings.se/?s=news]

On September 28 2007 they released their 11th studio album, "The Sum Of No Evil", containing 6 new songs.

Personnel

Current Members

* Roine Stolt - guitar, vocals, keyboards, bass guitar (1995–present)
* Tomas Bodin - keyboards (1995–present)
* Hasse Fröberg - vocals, guitar (1995–present)
* Hasse Bruniusson - percussion (1995–present)
* Jonas Reingold - bass guitar (1999–present)
* Erik Hammarström - drums (2008–present)
* Ola Heden - vocals, keyboards, guitar (2008–present)

Former Members

* Michael Stolt - bass guitar (1995–1999)
* Jaime Salazar - drums (1995–2001)
* Zoltan Csörsz - drums (2001–2005; 2007)
* Daniel Gildenlöw - vocals, guitars, keyboards (2002–2004)
* Marcus Liliequist - drums (2005–2006)

Discography

tudio Albums

* "The Flower King" (1994) (Roine Stolt solo album, regular and artwork editions)
* "Back In The World Of Adventures" (1995)
* "Retropolis" (1996)
* "Stardust We Are" (1997) (double CD)
* "Flower Power" (1999) (double CD, Japanese edition with bonus tracks)
* "Space Revolver" (2000) (regular and digipack editions single CD, Japanese edition double CD)
* "The Rainmaker" (2001) (regular edition single CD, special limited edition double CD)
* "Unfold The Future" (2002) (double CD, limited edition contains bonus track)
* "Adam & Eve" (2004) (Japanese edition double CD with bonus tracks)
* "Paradox Hotel" (2006) (double CD)
* "The Sum Of No Evil" (2007) (special limited edition double CD)

Live albums

* "Alive On Planet Earth" (2000) (double live CD)
* "Meet The Flower Kings" (2003) (double live CD and DVD, available separately or together)
* "Instant Delivery" (2006) (double live DVD concert, limited edition includes double cd and booklet)

Limited Edition Official Bootlegs

* "Édition Limitée Québec" (1998) (unreleased and live tracks)
* "The Rainmaker Tour 2001" (downloadable from website, not commercially available)
* "Live In New York - Official Bootleg" (2002)
* "BetchaWannaDanceStoopid!!!" (2004)
* "Carpe Diem - Live In USA 2006" (2008)

Fan Club Albums

* "Fan Club 2000" (2000)
* "Fan Club 2002" (2002)
* "Fan Club 2004" (2004)
* "Fan Club 2005 / Harvest" (2005)

Compilations

* "Scanning the Greenhouse" (1998)
* "The Road Back Home" (2007)

Related Discographies

* Circus Brimstone
* Kaipa
* Karmakanic
* Roine Stolt
* The Tangent
* Tomas Bodin
* Transatlantic

External links

* [http://www.flowerkings.se/ The Flower Kings official band site]
* [http://www.flowerkings.se/?s=plantation The Flower Kings live taping policy]