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Biography
Infobox musical artist | | name = The Flower Kings| image = Flowerkings2004.jpg| caption = Roine Stolt and Tomas Bodin in 2004.| image_size =| landscape = yes| background = group_or_band| alias =| origin = Sweden | genre = Progressive rock | years_active = 1994–present| label = Century Media Records|Century Media , InsideOut Music|InsideOut | associated_acts = Kaipa , Pain Of Salvation | website = http://www.flowerkings.se FlowerKings.se| current_members = Roine Stolt Hasse Fröberg Tomas Bodin Jonas Reingold Felix Lehrmann | past_members = Jaime Salazar (musician)|Jaime Salazar Michael Stolt Zoltan Csörsz Daniel Gildenlöw Marcus Liliequist Ola Heden Erik Hammarström The Flower Kings are a Sweden|Swedish progressive rock group. Formed in August 1994 by veteran guitarist Roine Stolt as a touring band to support his solo album The Flower King ,Cite web | title = The Flower Kings on Allmusic.com | author = François Couture | url = Allmusic|class=artist|id=p306066/biography|pure_url=yes| accessdate = 2009-08-24 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 thirteen years they released nearly 18 hours of music. Their music is similar to early symphonic rock|symphonic progressive rock groups such as Yes (band)|Yes , marked by sharp dynamic changes, polyrhythmic s, heavy bass, vocal harmonies, abstract and occasionally nonsensical lyrics, and extended song lengths.
History and Band Notes
The Flower Kings have seen frequent personnel changes. The original line-up for Stolt's solo album consisted of Stolt ( singer|vocals , electric guitar , bass guitar|bass , and Keyboard instrument|keyboards ), Jaime Salazar ( Drum kit|drums ), and Hasse Fröberg (vocals). They later added Michael Stolt on bass and Tomas Bodin on keyboards for the supporting tour. Michael Stolt was replaced by Jonas Reingold in 2000, and Jaime Salazar by Zoltan Csörsz in 2002. Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation joined the band the same year as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
Other contributors have included Hasse Bruniusson ( percussion instrument|percussion ) and Ulf Wallander ( saxophone ).
Roine Stolt has written the vast majority of the material the band has recorded, with Bodin contributing most of the rest. The music is best described as symphonic progressive rock, bearing a strong resemblance to the music of Yes (band)|Yes , King Crimson , Gentle Giant , and early Genesis (band)|Genesis , with jazz fusion and blues influences. The band's lyrics are almost uniformly positive and uplifting, affirming such values as love, peace, and spirituality, and furthering their association with Yes.
Their 1999 album Flower Power (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 three albums with supergroup (bands)|supergroup Transatlantic (band)|Transatlantic , with members of Dream Theater , Spock's Beard , and Marillion , in 2000, 2001, and 2009.cite web |first= |last= |url= http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx? high=& m=2293968& mpage=1#2294001 |title=Transatlantic Reunite for New Studio Album& #33; |publisher=Mike Portnoy's forum |accessdate=2009-04-16cite web |first= |last= |url= http://flowerkings.se/? s=news |title=Transatlantic Flies Again!!& #33; |publisher=The Flower Kings official website |accessdate=2009-04-16
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 (band)|Genesis ' " The Cinema Show ". http://www.flowerkings.se/? s=news Zoltan Csörsz was replaced by new drummer Marcus Liliequist for one album, but returned for the 2007 album, The Sum of No Evil . He was subsequently replaced by Erik Hammarström in 2008.cite web | title = The Flower Kings on MySpace | url = http://www.myspace.com/cosmiclodge | accessdate = 2009-08-21 In 2008, Ola Heden , previously of Reingold's side project Karmakanic , joined on guitar, vocals and keyboards.
In November 2008 the band were the opening act of the InProg|Ecco Prog Fest in Moscow .
On February 2, 2012 it was announced that the band will release a new album in 2012. Due to be released June 6, it will be featuring new drummer Felix Lehrmann.
