It was their final show of the Banks of Eden tour 2012 and what a show it was. Lalle Larsson played us in with piano arrangements of music from his latest album, plus a very cool jam with Jonas and Felix. The Flower Kings themselves started off with Numbers, followed by For the Love of Gold, also from Banks of Eden. Then we delved back into albums such as Paradox Hotel, Adam and Eve and of course, Stardust We Are. But for the first time (in the times I’ve seen The Flower Kings play), they even played from The Rainmaker! Last Minute on Earth to be precise. Roine joked that there were actually...

Two days ago, dates for The Flower Kings European tour were announced. Check them out!. This is the tour that will follow the release of their new album, Banks of Eden, due out around the 26th June. There are three dates for the UK, the 24th of September is the one that interests me. In fact, it was Scala where I first saw them way back in 2004 on their Adam and Eve tour, so for me it will be a bit of a blast from the past. For that particular date, you can buy tickets from Scala or...

It was only the other day I was talking to my wife about how about The Flower Kings haven’t released an album for 5 years. In fact, I blogged about this only the other day when I was talking about Agents of Mercys album, The Black Forest. Well, as if my prayers have been answered, The Flower Kings have announced a new album, Banks of Eden, set for a June release, followed by a tour. The familiar faces are back, but with a new drummer Felix Lehrmann. More about their new album can be found here. It’s been far too long, but it’s finally here (almost), and boy I can’t wait....

I’ve always been a musician at heart, and I’ve always loved listening to music. I’ve even gone so far as to get into music composition, some of which I carry on doing today. The Beatles, Kula Shaker, The Prodigy, Queen were all early favourites. From there, I gradually steered towards Progressive Metal (with thanks to my old school friend Tom Maclean, now the lead guitarist of To-Mera and bassist for Haken), the realms of Dream Theater, Symphony X to name a couple. Pantera was also a favourite of mine at that time. I also stumbled across American Prog Rock band Spocks Beard, who...